Hearts Eclipsed by Shadows
by Golden Kevin
Summary: When he was young, he heard stories all about his ancestors and the famed semblance they had but never guess he would one day earn it too. But it was a curse placed upon them as a omen of war now rises. The Harmonixer now must fight.
1. Beginnings

_A Heart Eclipsed by Shadows_

 _Note: I don't own RWBY or the fusions I'm using for this story. Rooster Teeth owns RWBY and Midway owns the fusions._

* * *

 _Chapter 1: Beginnings_

* * *

 _Flashback Starts_

 _Alexander Arc had just seen his son's normally blue eyes suddenly change to blood-red then changed back. The legend of the Harmonixer had just been proven true, War was coming to Remnant within his generation. He needs to train Jaune to be ready for anything down the line of his life._

" _Jaune… Do you understand what just happened right?"_

 _Jaune was feeling weak and kneeling on the floor. Him activating the Harmonixer blood in him took a lot_

" _I became something rare and very powerful…?" said Jaune slowly._

 _Alexander decided to let Jaune know what being a Harmonixer meant later. A nine-year-old doesn't need to know he's a symbol of hardships to come, and being cursed to constantly absorb Malice from the Grimm._

" _Correct Jaune and soon here I'll teach you how to fight. Then when you are seventeen, I'll talk to old Ozpin to get some transcripts to allow you into his academy. Does that sound good?"_

 _Jaune was shaking his head as positive as he could in his weakened state._

" _Then, tomorrow we start." said Alexander proudly and wickedly._

 _Flashback Ends_

* * *

Jaune Arc was having a relatively smooth flight to Beacon, considering he hasn't puked on anyone's shoes and is enjoying a pleasant view of Vale. His family gets motion sickness on bullheads, but he does not have motion sickness what so ever. He instead has seasickness that limits him in Mistral due to boats being a major form of travel there. His father, Alexander Arc made sure to train him extensively after his Semblance has revealed to his family at the age of nine, teaching him how to wield _Crocea Mors_ and Kickboxing with a bit of mixed martial arts. It helped that whenever he couldn't wield his weapon, he at least has some hand to hand skills to keep him in the fight and stay alive.

His semblance is the art of Fusion or what his father told him his title, a Harmonixer.

'I guess it isn't all so bad. My semblance is pretty good. although I still need to kill more Grimm. And… find those damn gravestones my dad told me to search for… This sucks." thought Jaune critically.

He looked to his right and notice two people talking, a blonde woman with a smaller redhead that seemed embarrassed and exasperated with the blonde.

"Yang…! I don't want to be the bee's knees! I don't want to be any kind of knees. I just want to be a normal girl with normal knees…" said the redhead.

"What's with you? Aren't you excited?" said the blonde now known as Yang.

"I am… it's just… I got moved ahead two years. I don't want anyone to think I'm special or something." said the redhead.

After a bit more talking between the two, a blonde woman appears on the window.

"Who is that?" said Yang confused.

"Hello and welcome to Beacon. My name is Glynda Goodwitch."

"Oh." said Yang a bit underwhelmed.

"And you are among the privileged few that have the honor to attend this prestigious academy. Our world is experiencing an incredible time of peace and as future Huntsmen and Huntress', it is your duty to uphold it. You have demonstrated the courage needed for such a task and now it's our turn to provide you with the knowledge and the training to protect our world." as her image on the screen disappears with a chime.

Ruby then walks to the window and admires the view with Yang as a man stumbles past the two holding his mouth, running to the trash can about to puke his breakfast out.

"I guess the view isn't for everyone I guess." chuckled Yang. Ruby nodded with her statement.

The guy just lost the battle with his stomach and puked on the floor. Right onto Yang's shoes.

"Oh gross! Yang you have puke on your shoes!" yelled Ruby disgusted.

"Ew! Gross get it off!" yelled Yang.

'I feel bad for that guy right now. I'd probably be in his shoes if I had motion sickness like him.' thought Jaune as the guy got punched to the wall for puking on Yang's shoes.

* * *

As Jaune was walking away the bullhead and admiring the view of Beacon he saw a girl in white with a lot of luggage checking her dust vials and in the far back, a girl in black was reading a book whose title he couldn't tell from this distance. He couldn't hear everything but the girl in white was yelling at the redhead from earlier for something then they suddenly blew up! The girl in black said a few words and then they both walked away from the redhead, seeing her fall back down to the ground in despair.

'I'd better help her… She needs a friend more than ever right now.' thought Jaune as he walked over to the redhead.

Ruby was laying on the ground dejected after the Heiress named Weiss Schnee yelled at her for blowing them both up with some fire dust that she hadn't checked if the seal was good then a girl in black

"Welcome to Beacon…" said Ruby sadly.

"Hey. Need a hand?" as Jaune held out his hand for her to grab. Ruby hoists herself up and dusts off her outfit although blushing a bit.

"Thank you for helping me. My name is Ruby Rose!" said Ruby happily.

"Jaune Arc. Nice to meet you." smiled Jaune.

"Why did you help me? Everyone just ignored me." said Ruby curiously.

"Well… My mom told me that strangers are just friends you haven't met yet." said Jaune, smiling.

"She's a smart woman if what you said is true." smiled Ruby.

"Well… I got this thing…" as Ruby pulled out her weapon and slams the blade in the ground.

"Whoa! What is that thing?!" said Jaune although a bit scared.

"It's my baby! _Crescent Rose_ is a scythe that is also a fully customizable high impact sniper rifle!" cheered Ruby.

"It's a what?" Jaune said confused.

"It's also a gun." deadpanned Ruby.

"Oh. Well… At least you have a ranged weapon. I got two weapons." said Jaune as he pulled out his sword and shield.

Ruby looked curiously at the combo that Jaune held in his hands.

" _Crocea Mors_ is just a simple sword and the shield can collapse into a sheath, but it is indestructible and was wielded by my great-great-great granddad in the Great War."

Jaune then pulls out two black colored gauntlets that looked like rib cages all around except the bottom where it has five holes to put his fingers in, retractable blades on top with two white and gold feathers on both sides of the gauntlets.

"These I call them _Chimera_. They can be used like brass knuckles or with the blades makes them deadlier. I'd use these if I didn't have Crocea Mors." said Jaune proudly.

Ruby had stars in her eyes when seeing Jaune's weapons.

"Now… Where's the Auditorium…?" chuckled Jaune nervously.

"I don't know. I was following you." said Ruby.

"Any landmarks or like a food court or something?"

"Nope." chuckled Ruby.

* * *

"Ruby! I saved you a spot over here!" yelled Yang, waving her hand to gain Ruby's attention.

"Hey! There's my sister. I'll see you later Jaune!" said Ruby as she disappears in a flurry of rose petals.

"Well… Where am I going to find a nice quirky girl to talk to...?" said Jaune as a redhead in bronze heard him. Jaune walks to the opposite wall and leans on it as Ozpin starts his speech.

After Ozpin's beginning speech everyone was told to go to the ballroom to get ready to sleep for the night. Jaune was looking in his bag for his pajamas and thankfully, he could ditch the blue onesie that his sisters always attempt to hide in his bag. He pulled out a white shirt with his gold double arc symbol on the back and a blue plaid pajama pants. Walking though the ballroom, he was called over by Ruby who was laying with her sister Yang.

"Hey Jaune, come meet my sister Yang!" said Ruby as she waved him over to them, Jaune carrying his sleeping bag with him.

"Hey Ruby. I'm Jaune Arc, nice to meet you…?" as Jaune held out his hand for Yang to shake.

"Yang Xiao-Long, nice to meet ya. Good to see Ruby has at least one friend here." said Yang with a smile.

"But I think Weiss counts as a negative friend… Back to zero." said Ruby a bit dejected.

"I don't think she's a negative friend… She's more like an enemy. one friend and one enemy." said Yang.

"Yeah Ruby. Wasn't she waving dust all around in your face causing you to sneeze? Also, why don't you talk to her?" Jaune points to the girl reading a book.

Both Ruby and Yang were talking to the girl named Blake and they were getting along until Weiss came over and started yelling at Ruby.

"What's your problem with my sister?!" yelled Yang angrily.

"She's a hazard for my health!" yelled Weiss in retaliation, crossing her arms and looking away.

Jaune figured this would be an appropriate time to break up before a professor yelled at them.

"Hey hold on. Let's actually try to be civil here." Jaune said nervously, holding his hands out to stop Weiss or Yang from doing something rash.

"Now let's introduce ourselves, my name is Jaune Arc. And your name is?" smiled Jaune towards Weiss

Weiss looked at him like he was stupid but decided to be civil.

"Weiss Schnee. Pleasure to meet you." said Weiss as she looked at Jaune a bit snobbishly.

"Ruby Rose." she introduced herself a bit better, although a bit excitedly.

"Yang Xiao-Long." she said in a flirty tone, causing Jaune to blush a bit.

"S-See… now can we get along for tonight? It's almost time to sleep…" stuttered Jaune.

Everyone agreed to go to sleep as Blake blew out the candle. Jaune can't help but think how lucky that he got to Beacon and to remind himself after getting done with Initiation to thank Ozpin for allowing him to attend. As Jaune fell asleep, he felt a tugging sensation on his aura and was completely knocked out.

* * *

Jaune woke up not in the ballroom but instead on a concrete floor next to a gate.

"Ugh… where am I…?" as Jaune looked around his surroundings.

It looked like a twisted forest with six different tombstones with various symbols strewn about with a solid fence going all around until the back where a huge door was seen with four different masks floating on four pedestals. ( **A.N: Look up Shadow Hearts element symbols to know what symbols are on the tombstones.)**

"Aw man… I can't believe I'm back here in my nightmare… I hated this place so much…" grumbled Jaune as he walked forward though the graveyard.

"I always remember getting eaten by something around here. Why do I have to be here of all places?!" yelled Jaune in frustration and in fear.

Jaune then looked over to the right and saw the Earth and the Fire tombstone glowing.

"Huh. I don't remember those two glowing in my past nightmares." said Jaune curiously.

Jaune walked up and touched the Earth tombstone then suddenly, a bright light enveloped Jaune and a monster the same height of Jaune but covered in varied sizes of rocks appeared in front of him. Jaune jumped back to avoid a hit from the monster, putting on Chimera and dropping into his fighting stance.

"Well c'mon!" yelled Jaune in defiance towards the monster. The monster dropped in the same stance as Jaune.

Jaune ran at the monster when it tried to throw a hook but Jaune ducked and uppercut the monster stunning it, allowing Jaune to rain different straights and kicks to the monster. the monster at the last punch grabbed Jaune's fist and hit him with a haymaker sending him to the floor.

"Damn you pack a punch…" grumbled Jaune as he wiped his mouth on the back of his hand.

Jaune noticed the monster was wobbling and looked like it was on death's door.

'Time to end this…' thought Jaune wickedly as he ran to the monster landing an aura infused elbow to its ribs then Jaune jumped as high as he could and slammed the back of his right foot unto the back of the monster's head, killing it.

"Whew… you weren't so tough now! Huh?!" yelled Jaune in triumph as a blinding light washed over him and his aura changed from a pure white to a light green color.

A disembodied voice spoke out as his aura turned back to white.

" **You have gained the soul of Vastitas!"**

Jaune focused his aura in his right hand and a small light green flame appeared in his hand as his eyes turned blood-red.

"So… that's how I fuse then eh? That might come in handy." smiled Jaune as the flame disappeared.

Jaune looked over to his left a bit and held out his left hand towards the Fire tombstone as another light flashed over Jaune.

Jaune then looked at the tan man in front of him but had a helmet and various assortment of arm and leg armor. He dropped into the same fighting stance as Jaune but seemed a lot more powerful.

"Okay then… you'll be a tougher customer… But I got a slight advantage…" smirked Jaune as the light green flame appears in his right hand again but instead he focused on it enveloping him as a bright light flashed out but now Jaune was the monster now known as Vastitas.

"Now let's do this…" said Jaune but now his voice has deeper and gravellier, as if the earth was speaking in his stead.

Jaune ran towards the fusion monster and now learned that he was slower, so the monster landed a kick to Jaune's ribs but held strong. He barely felt the kick and knew he was slower and more durable in this form. Jaune aimed a straight to its ribs then followed up with a side knee. The monster parried the punch but couldn't block the knee and staggered back, allowing Jaune to uppercut it and elbow the monster hard. The monster responded by covering its right hand in flames, punching Jaune in the back of his head, making him kneel.

'Ow! Now they can use elements?! I wonder if I can too…?' thought Jaune in pain.

Jaune thought of the earth and his right hand hardened and was covered in jagged spikes of rock around his knuckles, Jaune kicking the monster's leg making it kneel. Jaune then lands blow after blow with his right hand killing the monster outright.

The light emanated from Jaune and he returned to his normal self.

" **You have gained the soul of Karyl!"**

"Sweet. Two fusion forms gained and now it's time to see what's up with the door." said Jaune as he walked to the door.

" _Ho Ho Ho… It seems the young Harmonixer has finally greeted us…!" said the mask to the upper left._

" _Yes. And he has gained two fusion souls to benefit himself in the real world!" said the mask to the upper right._

"So, what the hell are you guys? To be honest if you guys are my conscience, you guys have done a poor job of keeping my impulse low." said Jaune in a curious tone.

" _We are the masks that govern your soul. You are cursed by us to constantly gain Malice for the fallen Grimm. But your fusion's use the malice to manifest themselves and you kill them and use their souls." said the mask on the lower left._

"Okay… great." deadpanned Jaune. These things are what cursed him while he's a Harmonixer.

" _We have no further use for you to be here. Return to the land of the living!" proclaimed the mask that had a grail on the top of its head._

"Fine then." shrugged Jaune as he left them and gone to the gate.

'Now I can fuse in the real world… I would be best if I hide it until I can trust some people. I don't want to get attacked while in my fusion form…' thought Jaune critically.

As he got to the gate his body slowly faded away as to signal him waking up in the real world to get ready for Beacon's Initiation test.

 **A.N: Welcome to my first Fanfiction inspired by an old video game called Shadow Hearts. This doesn't have any of the characters and I only use the Fusion aspect of the game in here. Like and fav if you liked it and leave a review if you like to. I'd dedicate some of my time reading them if you have any clever ideas for this story. BTW I won't be doing Arkos as a ship in this. It's time we give other Jaune ships a time to shine. I'm thinking of Lancaster to symbolize Yuri and Alice's relationship in the game and I thought it would be a promising idea, but I will try other ships. I will try to upload a chapter every week or two but since I'm in training for my job and I have no damn clue what my schedule will be like and even worse it's seasonal… (War flashbacks of Black Friday.) Anyways, enjoy and I would love a beta for ideas.**

 **Added Note: Updated this chapter to go ahead and include a bit of background for Jaune in this story and added in more dialog since writing this at 1 A.M was a bad idea for doing conversations between characters. (No amount of coffee can wash away the bad ideas…) And I want to thank the reviews for helping a bit.**


	2. Fighting Prowess

_Hearts Eclipsed by Shadows_

 _Chapter 2: Fighting Prowess_

* * *

 _Flashback starts_

" _Now Jaune, you can't fuse now since you're still young and you haven't gained any malice from Grimm. We live in a safe area near Haven Academy, so Huntsmen and Huntresses constantly exterminate Grimm nearby." lectured Alexander. "I'll even bet you ten lien that our ancestor, Roland Arc had problems too fusing around others."_

" _Why dad? Do people not like us?" said Jaune curiously._

" _Well you have to figure; your fusions look monstrous at first glance and they aren't really thinking about who that is. They'll attack you without realizing it." said Alexander seriously._

 _Jaune looked sad at what his dad told him. He couldn't use his semblance due to people might kill him while fused._

 _Alexander put his hand on Jaune's head and ruffled his hair. "Now don't look so down Jaune, your semblance is much more powerful than others. But there are some drawbacks to it." said Alex with a smile on his face._

" _One is fusion backlash. it is of course self-explanatory, fuse too much in too fast of a span of time and your aura will fluctuate wildly. It might not protect all too well or you'll feel random elemental effects." said Alex with his index finger raised. "Two is that your emotions IS linked to your semblance. Give in to your anger or you'll unconsciously fuse into one of your fusions at random. You must keep a clear head, or you'll fuse without knowing it." lectured Alex while Jaune was shaking his head, understanding what his father told him._

" _Now. Let's work on your kicks, they really need work with power and flexibility." said Alex lifting a ten-year-old Jaune._

 _Flashback ends_

* * *

Jaune woke up feeling refreshed around six o'clock, sitting up and stretching his body and looking around his surroundings. Ruby was all over the place, her arms out wide with her legs at different angles. Yang was snoring lightly but wasn't taking a lot of space.

'Guess I should get ready for the day.' yawned Jaune as he thought mentally about his aura and the two fusions he has available. 'I should talk to Ozpin soon anyways. Would be best after I get assigned to a team.'

Jaune grabbed a pair of jeans, a black shirt and his special edition Pumpkin Pete's hoodie. He earned that by sending in a bunch of box tops and kept it in excellent condition due to a great mother and seven sisters. As Jaune walked in the bathroom, an energetic ginger was dancing all around a man wearing green with a magenta strip in his pitch-black hair.

"Morning! Good morning!" said the ginger with seemingly endless energy. Jaune felt bad for the guy as he was just not feeling it this morning. He overheard something about sloths as he started washing up. Jaune got dressed after drying himself off, going to the mess hall to see if they have any decent food or seats left. Jaune made sure to grab a decent amount of bacon and eggs with toast, a healthy breakfast for the day. Yang and Ruby were sitting together with Ruby waving him down to sit with them, Jaune sitting across from them smiling. Ruby had cookies that no-one knew how she got them and Yang with a steak breakfast.

"How did you guys sleep?" inquired Jaune, yawning a bit.

"Pretty good eh Jauney?" said Yang with her arms underneath her breast, pushing them up to give Jaune a view but he looks away blushing badly.

"W-Well… I'm g-glad that you had a nice night of sleep…" stuttered Jaune.

"Yang…! But I had a good night of sleep. Thanks Jaune" smiled Ruby while feeling annoyed with Yang.

"Awesome. But now I think it's time to start with initiation." said Jaune after saying that, they finished their food and went to the locker room to get ready.

* * *

As Jaune was searching for his locker, he overheard a conversation between two girls. It happened to be Weiss and a redhead in bronze armor with a red sash around her hip. Weiss was saying something about being the most powerful pair at Beacon, but the redhead looked kind of uncomfortable with Weiss so Jaune decided to help a bit.

"Want to know what else is great? Me, Jaune Arc. Nice to meet you…?" said Jaune a bit slow missing the glare Weiss was sending him.

"Excuse me but do you know who this is?" said Weiss, a bit hot tempered.

"Not a single clue Snow Angel." said Jaune in response as Weiss' eye twitched at the nickname.

"This is Pyrrha Nikos." as said redhead said a small hello in response to her name, waving her hand at Jaune.

"Not a clue who that is." said Jaune cluelessly.

"She graduated at the top of her class at Sanctum!" yelled Weiss angrily at Jaune.

"Wow. You must be pretty smart if you did better than everyone else." said Jaune in awe, Pyrrha smiling brightly.

"She's also the four-time Mistral Regional Champion! The youngest in history!" Weiss her iron-will discipline declining at the blonde-haired doofus.

"Doesn't it get boring after the third time? I would have been bored around the second time honestly." said Jaune neutrally.

"Honestly it's a challenge but you are right that it'd be boring after the third time." smiled Pyrrha.

Right before Jaune was about to say something, Weiss cuts him off. "After knowing all of that, do you think you're capable of being her partner?" said Weiss with her hands on her hips.

"Maybe. Maybe not but nothing is impossible right?" shrugged Jaune. "By the way… my locker is right in-between yours."

Both Weiss and Pyrrha left Jaune to his own while he put Crocea Mors on his belt while putting Chimera on his hands. He saw his necklace hanging on a hook and ties the leather strap around his neck. It's a Yang symbol with a stone half way in the symbol and outside of it. It was currently glowing blue like his eyes. ( **A.N: If needed for viewing pleasure, look up Talisman for Shadow Hearts.)**

"Will all students arrive to the cliffs for initiation." declared Goodwitch. Jaune was walking to the door when Yang and Ruby appeared.

"Ready Jauney? What's up with the necklace you have?" pointed out Yang, curious about his necklace.

"Oh. It's a gift from Dad. The stone is made from my aura and reacts in distinct colors. it changes to green, yellow, orange then red. Five colors in total." said Jaune a bit proudly. "But I don't know how Dad did it anyways. He knows all the rituals."

Yang shrugged while Ruby was looking at it intently, seeing if it would do a trick while they walk to the cliffs near the Emerald Forest. Yang was just talking to Jaune about a bunch of random topics while Ruby was skipping right next to them. Suddenly the talisman changes to green.

"Ooooh… that's really cool. I think it changes color near Grimm or something. I never heard of aura doing that." said Ruby curiously.

* * *

They arrived at the cliffs with several large tiles placed four feet away from each other with several students are already on besides Jaune, Ruby and Yang. Miss Goodwitch was standing there with Professor Ozpin, already having a conversation with her.

"Now some of you have heard rumors about partners but we are here to dispel them **now.** " Miss Goodwitch said with a glare to all the students. Ozpin coughing a bit to gain everyone's attention while drinking his coffee.

"These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon. So, it is in your best interest to be paired with someone whom you can work well with." said Ozpin as Ruby let out a groan of disbelief. "With that said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years."

Ruby felt her world collapsed after hearing that she had to get along with other people. "What…?!" yelled Ruby

Jaune felt bad for Ruby and hoped she got Yang as a partner or at least someone like her. Ozpin then told them to pair up and head off to the northern part of the forest and do not hesitate to kill Grimm or they will die.

"We will monitor and evaluate your performance throughout the initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. You'll come across an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. Each pair must take one relic and make it back to the top of the cliff." instructed Ozpin. "You will guard that relic and your standing, and you'll be graded appropriately. Are there any questions?"

Jaune figured that they had to use their own landing strategy after seeing a ginger haired kid with large armor get launched into the forest. His dad did tell him that Ozpin had a proclivity for launching students into the forest for two reasons. One is for his own amusement and the other reason is to have students prepared for impromptu flights that aren't in their control.

Ruby got launched right next to him and he stood with his feet shoulder width apart with his right foot forward, hunched over.

"Mister Arc. I have high hopes for you this year." smiled Ozpin as Jaune got launched into the forest, Ozpin sipping his coffee with a smile on his face.

* * *

Jaune grabbed the sheath off his belt and activated the shield as he slammed into multiple branches then use the sword to hook into the body of the tree, the sword slipping off the tree causing Jaune to slam onto his back to the ground.

"Arggh… that's smarts…" Jaune groaned as he got up in pain. "Thank Oum for aura but I'm gonna feel this in the morning I guarantee. "

A pack of Beowulfs must had heard his crash landing and came to get some free food or so they thought. Jaune put his left foot forward with the shield out to defend himself, keeping the sword at his side to retaliate. One Beowulf must have not thought all the way through as Jaune bashed its head with his shield, swiftly decapitating it as it faded into inky smoke. The others jumped into the fight as one of their comrades died. Jaune started by putting more force into his back foot to steel himself for a hit, one Beowulf swipes at his head but Jaune raises his shield, allowing the claws to skid off with sparks flying off. Jaune pierces its head from the bottom of its jaw, fading away as Jaune felt fire within his veins as he became a hurricane of sword swings. Jaune only had four left out of the pack when two fell due to gunshots from a woman with bronze armor, Pyrrha above them taking quick but precise shots at them as she killed the last two.

"I'm guessing we're partners now eh Pyrrha?" smiled Jaune as Pyrrha jumped down from the branch she was perched on.

"Yes, we are. Sorry for not jumping in earlier but it seemed you had it with your training." smiled Pyrrha.

"Eh Beowulfs. They aren't that difficult, but they do have numbers." said Jaune walking past Pyrrha. "So, do you know where to go to the temple. I didn't get a good sense of direction after being launched." Jaune rubbing the back of his head as he thought of the direction of the temple.

Pyrrha points to her left as gunshots rang out in that direction. "I'm guessing over there. Our comrades are already fighting."

"What's in that cave?" Jaune points at the cave with various drawing at the entrance. "Could a relic be in there?"

"Maybe. Let's find out." as they both walk into the cave, Jaune picking up a stick and wraps an old cloth around it making a torch. "Hey Pyrrha, can you hand me some fire dust?" Pyrrha sprinkles some dust on the torch, igniting it.

Jaune suddenly trips and drops the torch in a puddle, enveloping them in darkness.

"Can you feel that?" Pyrrha said slowly.

"Soul-crushing regret?" said Jaune a bit scared.

"No, it feels… warm." said Pyrrha as Jaune noticed a golden glowing object over his head.

"Hey, is that it?" said Jaune as he attempts to grab it, jumping for it.

"Got it!" exclaimed Jaune as the object moved.

"Um… Jaune… I don't think that's a relic." said Pyrrha as she slowly backed away.

The "relic" moved over where it revealed a Deathstalker's face and the "relic" was its stinger. Jaune screamed loudly as Pyrrha ran out of the cave, with the Deathstalker chasing her with Jaune on its tail.

"It's not a relic Pyrrha!" yelled Jaune as he held on for dear life.

"Just hold on- "Jaune was thrown from the tail unto the forest, Pyrrha rubbing the back of her head like Jaune, running away.

* * *

Jaune was flying through the forest wondering why did he decide to follow his dad's advice on going to Beacon to advance his Fusion powers. Now why is there a black and red blur coming towards him…?

"Oh cra- "Jaune then slammed into Ruby and they collide into a tree, Ruby being dazed while Jaune was hanging upside down groaning.

"Ow… What hit me…?" groaned Ruby with scythes over her head.

"That would be me Rubes…" as Jaune groaned and landed on the branch, prompting more groans.

"I didn't think I would be launched more than once today. Who's your partner?" inquired Jaune.

Ruby was about to tell him, but Weiss yelled out how she left her there on the Nevermore's claw.

"I told you to jump!" yelled Ruby.

"She's going to fall." said the boy with the magenta streak in his hair.

"She'll be fine." waved Yang nonchalantly.

"She's falling." said Blake stoically.

Jaune righted himself and prepared to grab Weiss in midair and is timing it right. Hopefully. Jaune jumped and grabbed Weiss and pulled her close so her body was protected by Jaune. They landed roughly but Weiss was fine while Jaune suffered another bad landing causing more back pain.

"My hero." said Weiss very slow and sarcastic, checking her nails and getting up.

"You're lucky you're as light as you look…" mumbled Jaune out of her earshot.

Jaune got up and popped his back as Pyrrha got knocked to the ground when the Deathstalker burst through the trees with the Nevermore cawing loudly.

"Great! Now we can die together!" yelled Yang sarcastically.

"Not if I got anything to say about it!" Ruby was about to rush the Deathstalker until Jaune grabbed her hood, causing an abrupt stop.

"You were about to rush a giant Grimm without help. Let's grab our relics and handle them later." said Jaune already knowing that she was going to get hurt.

"You're right. Let's go and think of a better plan." as Ruby grabbed the golden knight piece while Jaune grabbed the golden rook piece.

All eight of them ran from the temple to some abandoned ruins while the Nevermore launches its sharpened feathers at the group, everyone dodging at various degrees while Jaune and Pyrrha blocked them with their shields. they ended up getting separated since the Nevermore destroyed a bridge causing Ren, Pyrrha and Blake stranded fighting off the Deathstalker.

"We got to get over there! But I don't think I can make that jump…" said Jaune nervously.

Nora then smacked Jaune behind her and then transformed her grenade launcher to a giant hammer, jumping to the other edge and slamming her hammer down, launching Jaune to the other side then pulling the trigger to fire a grenade to propel her to the other side too. Nora landed in front of the Deathstalker and hit it with her hammer and when the Grimm was about to stab her with its stinger, she triggered an explosion firing her backwards and away from the stinger, knocking off Blake. Blake used her ribbon to swing herself to the Nevermore, using her semblance to get on top of it swinging her weapon all over the back of it. She jumped off and landed next to Yang.

"It's hide is too tough for me to cut through." said Blake as she transformed her katana to its gun form.

"Then let's give it all we got!" yelled Yang as she got Ember Celica, Weiss changed her dust and formed glyphs in front of her and Ruby aiming Crescent Rose at the Nevermore. They started launching attacks at the Grimm as it moves away to get away from the firing.

Jaune, Nora, Ren and Pyrrha combat the Deathstalker by having Ren fire at the stinger while Jaune blocks one of the claws from hitting Pyrrha. Pyrrha shifts her weapon to its carbine form and fires a few shots at it when Ren got knocked back by the other claw. Jaune notices the stinger is loose and knew Nora can nail it to kill the Grimm.

"Pyrrha! Can you hit that stinger?!" yelled Jaune as he slashed at one of the eyes. Pyrrha throws her shield and hits the stinger where it was loose.

"Nora! Nail it!" said Jaune as he pointed his sword at the Grimm. Pyrrha raises her shield over her head and Nora lands on it, using a grenade to launch herself high up in the sky. She goes ahead on her way down fires a grenade to increase her velocity, slamming her hammer onto the stinger. The stinger pierced the Grimm with an added effect of destroying the bridge they were at, launching them across the ruins unto some soft grass.

"I'm glad to not be attacked right now. I will be sleeping after this fight." Jaune laid his head down on the grass exhausted. He will be taking a long, hot shower and plenty of tasty food.

As Jaune got up, he looked to the cliffs to see Ruby running up with a Nevermore hooked by her scythe with glyphs keeping her on the cliffs. It seemed she was firing off rounds to keep her speed up and is yelling loudly. As she reached the top, the Nevermore got caught on a rock and all the momentum caused Ruby to decapitate it, striking a kneeling pose with rose petals falling all around her.

"Well. How to showoff featuring Ruby." smiled Jaune as they all walked towards the others.

As they got to the top, Ozpin was waiting for everyone. "Congratulations everyone. I'm proud that you all defeated a Deathstalker and a Nevermore with your wits on you. Now I'll be taking those relics now." Ozpin held a box so that the pairs can put them away. Jaune and Ruby were the last ones to put theirs away as Ozpin spoke. "The team ceremony will be happening later tonight, so you may get some sleep or something to eat."

The group left and gathered up at the cafeteria, so they can get some food in their stomachs.

* * *

Jaune was eating some chicken nuggets, a habit he hasn't kicked from home and loved eating at any time, Ruby had some strawberries and cookies, Weiss was eating a simple salad, Blake eating some fish that made everyone wonder if she had a craving for seafood, Yang having steak with cooked mushrooms, Nora having a stack of pancakes that everyone knows that can rival Ruby's appetite for cookies, Pyrrha having some Mistralian cooking from home while Ren had a salad with a cup of tea with him.

After the ceremony, Jaune was named leader for team JNPR while Ruby was leader for her team (Which is also her name as well.) team RWBY. Jaune was utterly surprised after gaining the position but he was worried that he would lead them into trouble or something.

"Hey guys! We should get together and talk about ourselves since we are sister teams after all." said Ruby a bit excited to know more about JNPR.

"Do we have any plans this weekend after classes?" asked Jaune to his teammates.

"Me and Renny don't have anything to do so why not! He can cook pancakes for me!" yelled Nora with glee, Ren shaking his head but smiling.

"I really don't have anything to do this weekend so why not? I'd like to know everyone else too." smiled Pyrrha.

"Ok Pyr it's decided, we'll go ahead and come with you guys on the weekend." smiled Jaune.

"Maybe we should spar one of these times eh Jauney?" said Yang with a devious glint in her eye that Jaune somehow missed.

"Uh… Sure? I don't see a problem with that." said Jaune slowly as Ruby was trying to shake her head to discourage Jaune from doing that.

"Awesome!" Yang suddenly grabbed Jaune into a headlock he was trying to get out of, fruitlessly.

"Gah! Let go Yang!" yelled Jaune as he kept struggling then just giving up.

"Tried to warn you Jaune… She's relentless when she wants to fight." said Ruby a bit remorseful to Jaune.

"Thanks for that. Now I think it's time for us to go to our dorms and sleep." noted Jaune as the clock showed 7 o'clock, the sun started to set below the horizon.

The two groups left to their dorms when Jaune noticed a box on his bed. Jaune wasn't expecting a package from Dad or his sisters so soon, there was a note on the box for him.

" _Dear Jaune, I heard from Ozpin that you passed Initiation without any problems and I decided to get you some better armor and clothes. That Pumpkin Pete hoodie can only last so long, so I got you a coat that goes well with the armor. I got you a new chestplate, vambraces, shinguards to help with your kicks. The coat is basically a brown trench coat, but it is enhanced with fire or ice dust to keep you warm or cool. It even has the Arc symbol on the back and will protect you from small arms like pistols and such, also some black cargo pants to hold dust or items if needed to and black combat boots. There's a blue T-shirt with your Talisman symbol on the back if you want to hide it by chance. These clothes are flexible for your hand to hand style of fighting. Oh, and do go ahead and tell your team your semblance and I know that you probably won't do that because of what I said about your great-great-great grandfather that he had to hide it. Your team will trust you no matter what and that trust is a two-way street, confide in them about your semblance and tell them to keep it a secret until you are ready. And I hope you could use my advice on dating! That is how I got your mother but anyway, I hope you have a lot of friends and good memories there at Beacon. Love dad._

Jaune smiled at the note and put the box in his closet, putting on his pajamas for the night.

 **A.N: Welcome to the second chapter! *Suddenly, the League of Legends icon hits me over the head* Sorry for not getting this out sooner but… League demanded my attention. *proceeds to get my ass kicked by TF2 also. * So, I'll address some questions here if I think you guys have questions at.**

" **Will Jaune become a Gary Stu with this semblance?"**

 **Honestly, no. I'm putting limitations on the Fusing part of it. A.K.A: All level one Fusions will use up 5% of Jaune's aura to fuse into said monster. Level two will take up 10% of his aura. Level three requires a Gravestone and a fight to earn a level 3 monster and will use up 15% of his aura. The other three that he'll get (Not gonna spoil it for ya… unless you look it up. Cheater.) Will take up variating percent of his aura to use. But his Semblance will make him at least equal to the others.**

 **I'm also gonna try spacing out the story so that the story doesn't end at like… Chapter 15 or something.**

 **Also to address, the person Jaune will date… Secret! but it is narrowed down to either Dragonslayer or White Knight. I have an important plot for either of them in this story when we get to it.**

 **Also, I'm gonna add in Yuri Hyuga from the game into this story by being Jaune's… Spirit guide. Reason why for this is that Yuri had his dad in his soul, but I wanted Yuri to be in Jaune's soul for future plot reasons and why not have a perverted Harmonixer within his soul for the laughing value!**

 **Anyways, Like, follow or review if you like this story and I'll see you for the next installment of Hearts Eclipsed by Shadows!**


	3. Revelations of the Soul

_Hearts Eclipsed by Shadows_

 _Chapter Three: Revelations of the Soul_

 _Flashback Starts_

* * *

 _Alexander was throwing punches left and right so that Jaune would get parrying or blocking down pat so his hand to hand was better. One punch got through since Jaune was getting tired and sore, the punch connecting with his nose._

" _We should stop here Jaune, you're getting slower on your reflexes and your blocking is getting weaker." Alexander held out a hand for Jaune, so he can get up. Jaune got up and rubbed his nose, wincing._

" _Hey dad, can you tell me about Yuri?" Jaune sat next to his dad after he grabbed his book, The book of Rituals._

" _Yuri… was of course a Harmonixer like you but he was what people back then called him, an Antihero. Someone that only helped people that coincided with his goals but, He kind of… Off-putting." Alexander had hoped that Jaune would get any other of their ancestors instead of Yuri for a Spirit guide._

 _Spirit Guides were past Harmonixers that guide the new ones into understanding their powers and to help them in their lives._

" _What did he do to be off-putting? Does he not like people?" Jaune tilted his head, curious about his dad's answer._

 _Alexander looked away, groaning in his hands. "He was… Perverted and unfortunately was also very crude and blunt to the point of offending anyone. But no one can refute he was the best person to have by their side at a crisis."_

 _Jaune figured that Yuri was a good man just wasn't a people person at all. He also figured his semblance was also a factor that made him kind of crude, but he had a good heart._

" _It sounds like Yuri was kind of alone. Where was his parents when this happened?" Alexander immediately cursed under his breath for Jaune's inquisitive nature._

" _His dad… died on a search and destroy mission in Vacuo and his mom was killed in front of him when his village was attacked in Mistral by Grimm. That is what led to him awakening his semblance early and making him kind of recluse and crude." Alexander slowly spoke, fearing Jaune might give up now._

" _That was why he was so strong? So, he wouldn't have to lose anymore people he cared for? It seemed sad that he lost his parents… But I'll be just as strong as Yuri!" resolved Jaune with a determined look._

* * *

Jaune woke up after dealing with gaining three more fusions souls as the disembodied voice spoke in his head. _**"You have gained the souls of Malakia, Radeus and Amnis!"**_

Jaune felt his aura get slightly denser and his senses were slightly dulled for the moment. He looked over his teammates to see Ren being as still as a corpse but that thought was betrayed by the rising and falling of his chest, Nora just being all over the place with her blanket barely covering her body and his partner Pyrrha, she was cuddling with her pillow and was smiling in her sleep. Jaune looked at his scroll, recoiling from the brightness he forgot again… to turn down and looked at the time, four thirty in the morning.

"Why do I have to wake up first thing before everyone else…" Jaune groaned the fact he couldn't sleep in much since the souls are somewhat restless.

" **Because… you're a Harmonixer now. more so than just in title and in theory Jaune."** a mysterious voice spoke inside his head.

Jaune jumped and covered his mouth to prevent a scream from waking his team early.

" **Just think what you want to say. I'll hear you and your team won't think your crazy!"** the voice laughed at Jaune's fright.

'Okay… So, who are you and why are you speaking in my head?' Honestly, Jaune was a bit scared that he was now going crazy because of a voice in his head.

" **Kid… hasn't your dad told you about spirit guides in Harmonixers? Because that's who I am!"** the voice declared proudly.

'So… What's your name then? Plus, I remember dad telling me about the guides.' the voice chuckled at Jaune's disposition.

" **My name is Yuri Hyuga Arc! A.K.A… The second Harmonixer in Remnant's history. And your guide to everything creepy and weird."** Yuri declared dramatically while Jaune remembered something else about him.

'Weren't you a pervert too?' Yuri started sweating at the kid remembering that peculiar part of him.

" **Details details…"** Yuri waved his hand dismissively although Jaune couldn't see him. **"Besides, isn't it time for you to get in the shower?"**

'You tried the dodge the question but you're right, it's five o'clock and I need to jump in the shower.' Jaune grabbed his uniform out of the closet and started to warm up the water for himself.

'So… are you going to like… teach me how to fight or fuse right?'

" **Mostly just fusing. Fusing in your graveyard to fusing in the real world are vastly different because in your own soul, it comes so easily. In the real world, its tougher and much more consuming on your sanity."** Yuri went again and went over the basics as Jaune showered and got ready except for the tie for his uniform.

Nora was waking up very slowly while Ren was making some pancakes to coax her from her slumber as Pyrrha took the shower after Ren. Nora smelled the pancakes then suddenly jumped up and yelled out her usual good morning on the top of her lungs.

"Good morning fearless leader!" Nora gave Jaune one of her bone-crushing hugs that would probably kill a Ursa Major with ease. Jaune was starting to see stars in his vision.

" **I'd be kind of wary of this one. She would kill you without any problems eh Jauney?"** Yuri chuckled at Jaune being crushed to death until Ren pulled her away with pancakes.

"Thank Oum I'm alive… thank you… s-so much Ren…" gasped Jaune as he kept trying to get his lungs working.

As Ren was about to say something, Pyrrha came out of the shower ready in her uniform as Nora finished the pancakes like they were nothing and ran into the bathroom to take a shower.

"Hey Pyr, can you help me with this tie please? Its annoying me to no end." Jaune was struggling to tie the tie.

Pyrrha giggled as she took Jaune's tie and helped him tie it. "It's no problem. Can't have our leader looking bad right?"

Suddenly, they heard team RWBY's door slam open and they heard rapid footsteps.

Jaune looked at his scroll for the time and realize they would be late for Prof. Port's class. "Guys! we need to go!" Jaune and his team ran out of their dorm, catching up to RWBY and somehow, possibly because of luck, they got to class on time.

* * *

Jaune was zoning in and out of sleep in Prof. Port's class as the man told tales of himself killing Grimm and something involving cabbages? Jaune looked over and saw Pyrrha taking notes perfectly as if she wasn't affected by Port's tales to induce sleep comas. Ren was taking notes, but it took most of his willpower to stay focused at his story. Nora gave up and fell asleep on her desk, lightly drooling on her paper. Jaune looked at RWBY and saw Weiss taking notes while Ruby was doing something but the expression on Weiss' face showed she was annoyed with Ruby while Yang was making a face of disgust at Port while he wasn't paying attention at all. Blake was reading a book, not even paying attention to his story at all and enjoying her fantasy world.

" **Hey Jaune!"** Jaune flinched slightly when Yuri yelled in his head, causing a minor headache. **"I can't help but notice you checking out the ladies that hang out with us! Can't believe you my man! Who caught your eye? Was it the Ice Queen?"** Yuri just bombarding him with questions that honestly, he really didn't want to answer but since he's in his head, he can't ignore him.

'Well if you say it like that… Weiss is pretty since she does look like an actual angel made from fine white snow and her light blue eyes that look like glaciers and her grace and elegance enthralls me. But then you have Yang… she's pretty I'll give her that, but her eyes are a beautiful shade of purple I think it was called lilac? And her hair if the sun hits it just right, shines like gold. But I don't know either of them quite well but I'm not going to attempt at flirting quite yet. The school year barely started and I'm not going to have our friends feel weird by me flirting with them.' Jaune resolved himself as he barely noticed the fight happening in class. Weiss was fighting a Boarbatusk and was having a tough time as she didn't have her rapier with Ruby shouting helpful tips at Weiss.

" **Well it seems she's kind of… cold to her own leader. Maybe she's spoiled?"** Yuri commented as he could see what was happening though Jaune's eyes. The fight ended with Weiss killing the Grimm and saying a few harsh things at Ruby, storming away as Ruby looked sad.

'She really needs help… but I have to leave to her team… they can help her better than I can.' Jaune took his team back to the dorms afterwards to get his stuff out of the closet.

* * *

"Hey Jauney, what is that you have there?" Nora looked over his shoulder to see what was in the box.

"It's a gift from my dad. He sent me some new stuff and even upgraded my Chimera claws." Jaune pulled out the newly upgraded weapon. It kept most of its original design but now with a flick of his wrist, the metal around his finger curved and bent to move with Jaune's fingers. It now was basically bladed brass knuckles that can deal damage.

"What style of hand to hand do you use Jaune?" Ren was curious since he used martial arts while Yang uses her boxing style to fight.

"I use kickboxing. it allows me to use my body as a weapon instead of just my hands and lets me be flexible." Jaune remembered the harsh training as he was only nine-years-old. "And my dad sent me new clothes and armor to help me fight a bit better."

Jaune pulled out the chestplate and looked it over, it was just like his old one, but it extended down to his waist for more protection. the vambraces went well with his Chimera and allowed him extra protection for blocking. the shinguards were paired well with his new combat boots and had hinges so his kicks were flexible with him as well. The coat was a tan leather trench coat with the Arc symbol on the back in gold with a black outline and was made very well, possibly by a professional leathermaker. his belts had extra pockets with various dust vials in them, to have the coat keep him cool or warm.

"Wow. All that looks expensive, even the amount of dust vials you have. Three vials for each dust type… you have fifteen vials of dust. What do you need this dust for?" Pyrrha was curious about the dust Jaune uses since his weapons don't use dust.

"My coat only uses one vial of fire or ice dust to keep me either cool or warm, the other vials are actually for Chimera. Gravity makes my hits stronger, wind for faster hits and lightning for stunning hits. I personally like wind for my attacks since I like to hit fast."

Jaune grabs the clothes and goes in the bathroom to change into his new clothes. He came out wearing the blue T-shirt that was covered by the new chestplate, black cargo pants and combat boots with the shinguards properly connected. Jaune then had the coat over all of it with the vambraces over the coat sleeve while one belt was worn on the outside of the coat, intersecting with the other belt. To complete the look, Jaune had his talisman worn out in the open for all to see.

"Wow Jaune! You look like a huntsman! Or a monster hunter really." Nora was just rambling afterwards while Ren and Pyrrha looked approvingly at Jaune's new outfit.

Their conversation was cut short when someone was knocking on JNPR's door, Jaune opened the door to see RWBY there.

"Heya Jauney! Hope you haven't forgot our sparring today!" Yang grabbed Jaune into a headlock, Jaune struggling to get her off him again.

" **I think she likes you! Plus, her… 'assets' must feel soft eh Jaune?"** Yuri teased in Jaune's mind, causing Jaune to blush like mad. Yang was laughing at his reaction before letting him go.

"Alright… L-Let's see if there's an open training room for us to use." The two teams talked to Miss Goodwitch about getting a training room, slowly conceding the point of the two teams working close together to get better.

* * *

Jaune was twisting his body to loosen his muscles to prepare for the fight of his life against Yang Xiao Long… Ruby warned him that she can go overboard if you cut her hair slightly or frustrate her. Jaune curled his index finger and felt the dust infuse with his weapon, feeling a bit of heat coming from the metal.

"Are you gonna stand there all day? We don't have Xiao Long before we have to go!" Yang smirked at her terrible pun but inside Jaune's mind, Yuri was chuckling.

" **I like this girl! You should go ahead and date her when you can!"** Yuri yelled causing Jaune to wince again.

'Dude. You like her puns…?' Jaune accused Yuri in his head.

" **Don't give me any crap. I saw you chuckling a few times at her puns too!"** Yuri shot back indignantly at Jaune's attempt at guilt-tripping him.

Jaune noticed that Yang was in her fighting position, so he slipped into Yuri's old form of fighting. His right foot was out with his hands away from his body but close enough to defend himself if needed to. His body parallel twisted slightly. Yang smirked as she armed and fired two shots at Jaune, forcing Jaune on the defensive. He knocked away one of the shots with the back of his hand and ducks under the other one just to see Yang propelling herself towards him by using her gauntlets. Jaune's eyes widen before rolling forward to dodge a dust shell infused punch that knocked him off his feet but got right back up with a handspring and ran at Yang.

* * *

Back at the others

* * *

"Wow. Jaune is fighting against Yang. I half expected him to run honestly." Blake noted seeing Jaune run at Yang recklessly.

"Our fearless leader can beat Yang no problem! Get her Jauney!" Nora cheering for Jaune while Ruby did the same for her sister.

Pyrrha felt a bit worried for Jaune since one, she was his partner and knew from Ruby that she could get a bit rough and two, she did like him. He never treated her like 'The Invincible Girl' but instead as just Pyrrha Nikos and she had feelings for him.

"That dunce may know how to fight but can he handle Yang?" Weiss was analyzing his movements as Jaune threw a right hook to throw Yang off rhythm.

Yang threw a haymaker at Jaune, but he ducked under it and retaliated with an uppercut, Yang moving her head back a bit to dodge it. Jaune kicked her away and jumped away to gain some distance, Jaune checking his aura levels. He stood at a decent seventy-four percent while Yang stood at eighty percent.

'Jeez she actually can hit hard… Let's kick it up a notch…!' Jaune curled his ring finger, activating the wind dust in his weapon.

Jaune ran at Yang, preparing his combo for when she retaliates with a punch. Hopefully. Yang decided to see what Jaune's going to do and boost up her semblance. Jaune realized it so she can gain a boost in power but already made up his mind.

Jaune lands five jabs to her chest and lands a right hook, continuing the momentum, Jaune kicks Yang in the side of her head, forcing her to stand straight up, her hair starting to spark and glow. Jaune wasn't finished and kicked her ribs and her knee, Jaune seeing Yang's eyes turn red and her throwing a haymaker than can land him into next week. Jaune parried it and jumped up in the air, right leg extended to put Yang in the ground. Yang suddenly grabs his leg and slams him to the ground and hitting Jaune with the haymaker now. Yang checks her aura level and was surprised to see it at fifty percent, Jaune can do massive damage if left unchecked or not blocked at all. Jaune had around thirty-two percent, very close to losing.

'Jeez… I don't think I can win against her… her semblance is a bad match against my fighting style…' Jaune struggling to stand after that hit.

"Don't leave me _Yanging_ eh Jauney?" Yang said with a devious smile, promising a bunch of pain if he got up and fought again.

" **Why don't you use your semblance? You can easily fight back against her if you used Karyl or Vastitas."** Yuri was still working on Jaune's soul to prepare him for fusing in the real world.

'Because they don't know and I'm having trouble fusing anyways in the real world… And I need to trust them a bit more before I tell them about my fusion powers.' Jaune slammed his fist in frustration at himself losing to Yang and not trusting himself to tell his team about his fusion. His eyes turned blood-red and looked directly at Yang, shocking her.

" **Jaune calm down! You're subconsciously fusing!"** Yuri shocked Jaune out of fusing and his eyes turned back to his normal deep blue.

Jaune got up but forgot one critical thing… there was a spar still going on as Yang sucker-punched him into a wall, instantly flinching at the spiderweb like cracks forming after Jaune slammed into the wall.

"Oops… I may have used too much force." as his team got him out and to the infirmary.

"Yaaang…! Why did you have to hurt Jaune…!" Ruby pouted and started hitting her arm, doing no damage whatsoever.

"Sorry there Rubes… I didn't mean to break your first friend." Yang smiled sheepishly and rubs her arm.

Weiss sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose. "Let's go with them and see if the dunce is fine." Ruby nods and then they all go to see Jaune.

* * *

On the way, Yang was talking to them about what happened at the end of the fight. "Rubes I'm not joking…! Jaune's eyes did change color!" yelled Yang feeling a bit frustrated that no one believed that his eyes changed like hers.

"Really? Why would his eyes change Yang? Could he have a mimicry semblance?" Ruby thought with a hand to her chin.

"To be honest, we don't really know his semblance." Blake cut in the conversation, wondering what semblance did Jaune had.

Ruby and her team met up with Jaune's team with Pyrrha giving Yang a glare that could scare second years. Jaune was reading a comic while Nora and Ren where just hanging out next to him.

"Hey Yang. What's going on?" Jaune smiled at Yang, holding no anger towards the blonde for beating him.

Yang was glad that he wasn't mad, and the others were happy that Jaune didn't have a hateful bone in his body.

"Jaune!" Ruby tackle hugged Jaune when he wasn't paying attention. "Yang said that your eyes can change color!" Jaune suddenly felt horrible that they knew his eyes can change color.

Jaune sighs as he had to tell them a half truth. "I can change it. it's a side effect I can't really control."

"Of what? Your semblance?" Ruby tilted her head, using her puppy dog eyes to get Jaune to spill the beans. Jaune however, wasn't going down easy and defended against the weaponized stare.

"I actually don't know my semblance. My family has the same problem as me. A few Arcs have the ability to change our eye color." Jaune gave them a convincing lie but part of the truth.

"Wow. I guess that's pretty eye opening huh?" Yang smirked at the pun while everyone else groaned. Jaune hid his chuckle amongst the groans.

"Are you feeling well enough to go to Doctor Oobleck's class?" Pyrrha held out a hand for Jaune to grab.

"Yeah I'll be fine. I don't need aura for his class." Jaune grabbed her hand and got himself up, Pyrrha blushing a bit but hiding her expression of happiness.

* * *

The group left the infirmary with Jaune being cleared but come back if he experiences anything. Professor... I mean Doctor Oobleck is our history teacher and can out speed Ruby somehow and that was probably because his coffee might have lightning dust in it. Oobleck was talking about some subject about faunus but wasn't paying much attention until Cardin hit him with piece of paper, dragging him out of his thoughts about how to break it to his team about his semblance.

"Yes, Mister Arc! Glad to see you participating! What did the faunus have over General Lagune in his battle of Fort Castle?!" Oobleck saying in his rapid-fire way of talking.

"Uhh…" Jaune looked past Oobleck to see Pyrrha doing something with her hands to her eyes. "V…Vision…?" Jaune said slowly not trusting himself.

"Partially true but I'll give you a point for effort! Mister Winchester! What say you?" Oobleck turned his attention to Cardin after Jaune slammed his head in despair.

"Tch. It's easier to train an _animal_ than a human." Oobleck shook his head as Blake and Pyrrha gave Cardin a death glare.

"Not the most open-minded of individuals are you, Cardin." Pyrrha said with a bit of venom in her tone.

"What? You got a problem?" Cardin got up to start a fight, but Blake had the answer to Oobleck's question.

"Most Faunus had night vision! This was a well-known fact, but he chose to ignore it and attack at night causing his forces to be defeated and the General captured." Blake looked directly at Cardin. "Maybe if he payed attention in class, he wouldn't be remembered as a failure in class." Cardin clenched his fist until Oobleck told Cardin to sit and to have Jaune and Cardin see him after class.

"Now I'm going to talk about the only two hereditary semblances in our world!" Jaune now looked pale and scared.

"One is of course the Schnee semblance is one of them. It is extremely versatile and can interact with the world around them and react to dust!" Weiss looked prideful at the doctor explaining her semblance.

"Then comes the extremely rare semblance of the Arc family! They were rumored to have a power beyond what the Schnee's can do! It was called Fusion and the only ancestor to have the power was Roland Arc!" All Jaune's friends looked at Jaune curiously since Oobleck was describing his semblance.

"His power allowed him to take souls that no one could even comprehend and use their powers to give them a huge power! But this is all speculation since during the Great War, there was not a single mention of a demonic looking presence in the war! and there was a side effect to all Arc ever since the semblance is in their blood is that their eyes can turn blood-red when angered! But unfortunately, it is rare to have a Harmonixer here with us since the odds are against their favor!" Weiss raised her hand for a question. "Yes, Miss Schnee!"

"How would it be like if a Harmonixer was here?" Oobleck sighed know what being a Harmonixer is going to be like.

"A Harmonixer is an omen… that war will come once again to Remnant. It is a sad life for Harmonixers since they are a herald of a harsh time ahead of us." everyone had widen eyes at the fact that it is sad that a Harmonixer will get no peace.

The bell rang and after Jaune was knocked down by Cardin, he promised that he would destroy Cardin in combat class tomorrow.

"You know… I will really break his legs…" Pyrrha muttered angrily. Jaune just waved his hand away.

"Don't worry. I'm going to break his face in tomorrow in combat class." Jaune muttered a bit angrily but Pyrrha knew he could since he stood toe to toe with Yang.

Jaune and Pyrrha came back to their dorm room and they both changed into their pajamas, sleeping away except for Jaune. Jaune woke up in the graveyard again but instead met a face in his soul.

"Y-Yuri…?" Jaune rubbed his eyes to get the sleep out.

"Who else is in your soul huh?" Yuri smiled at Jaune. "To be honest, your soul is very weird. I had to have some trauma to gain more fusions, but your soul is very pure. That's why it took me some time to get you the ability to fuse now."

"So, I can actually use my semblance in the real world now?" Jaune now looked between excited and scared.

"Yeah! But you still want to hide your powers?" Yuri sounded a bit… disappointed.

"Not from my team. Not after tomorrow after I beat in Cardin's face and humiliate him." Yuri laughed and now knew Jaune was a man after his own.

"Good. Now… you're going to get your first dark fusion and two level two fusions." Yuri smirked after Jaune groaned and got up.

"Fine… but after this, I'm getting some sleep and you better be quiet." Jaune readied up for a fight.

* * *

 **A.N: Welcome to the third chapter and now Jaune's friends know of the Arc semblance but they don't know Jaune is a Harmonixer. Uploading will still be between a week or two weeks. And I'll be working on other stories that my brain won't let go. Also as anyone may know. I have come to the decision of the pairing for this story. Now I'll say this in hopes of not dying.**

 **R.I.P: Bumblebee and Freezerburn and any Yang ship now since we are going Dragonslayer here!**

 **Reason why? Yang's volume 5 arc gave me some ideas on this story and her outfit is perfect for what I have planned. But I'll make stories that go ahead and use other pairing and other one shots. And it's kind of cute to see the blondes get together and you know… It's kind of my ship to hope in the actual show if Lancaster gets sunk. I just want to see the blonde noodle have some happiness in his life. And the pairing will be slow. I am not going to have them date instantly. That's a good way to get people off the story.**

 **Now have fun and I'll see you in the graveyard to kick ass!**


	4. The Bully and the Leader

_Hearts Eclipsed by Shadows_

* * *

 _Chapter Four: The Bully and the Leader_

* * *

Jaune was kneeling on the floor after defeating not three fusion monsters, but four. Yuri was leaning against the dark gravestone but had an honest smile on his face. He wears the same clothes as me but has a red shirt instead and had gloves on.

" _ **You have gained the souls of Barbaria, Sorm, Grano and Nox!"**_ Yuri picked up Jaune and had a smirk.

"Good job. I told you three, but you had enough stamina in you for another one eh?" Yuri started chuckling while Jaune groans and pushes him away.

"You're just as bad as Yang at times… I swear you were her ancestor instead of me." Yuri laughed, holding himself up with one hand.

"Nah… I just have a good taste in humor." Jaune shoved him off and he fell to the floor. Yuri gave Jaune an indignant look as Jaune wiped off his pants of any dust.

"Well. That explains a lot about you. But you know… Thanks for helping me really. I wouldn't be able to use my semblance if it wasn't for you." Jaune held out a hand for him to grab and Yuri picked himself up.

"Yeah yeah… Don't mention it. You are the new Harmonixer, so someone must help you. Although I can help you with your lady problems." Yuri smiled as Jaune became a bit more red.

"Please no… I rather get help from Ruby than you." Yuri immediately smelled blood in the water and went on the attack.

"So, you're trying to get at her sister! I knew you had good tastes!" Jaune became as red as Ruby's cloak under Yuri's insinuations.

"Ok fine! I do want to try… to date her… But I'm not going to sing. That was a disaster back when I was a kid…" Jaune had war flashbacks of trying to serenade one of his sister's friends. It ended badly as one may think.

"Judging by the look on your face, it ended badly. Well I'm in your head if you need help. You're going to wake up soon anyways.

Suddenly Jaune faded away from the graveyard and woke up in the dorm around five now. He got up and took off his shirt because he was feeling a bit warm throughout the night. Jaune went into the bathroom and brushed his teeth and got ready for the day. Pyrrha accidently walked in and got sight of Jaune's physique, lean but at the same time, has well defined muscles. Pyrrha walked away slowly and silently as not to tip Jaune that she saw him half-naked and lied in bed with her beet red face hidden. Jaune got dressed in his combat clothes courtesy of Miss Goodwitch sending them all a text saying show up in your combat clothes.

* * *

JNPR arrived and sat in front of RWBY and everyone was itching for a fight. Miss Goodwitch stood on the center of the arena and stares at anyone that would dare make any sound while she spoke.

"We shall be using tournament style rules during any spars. Once your aura goes into the red or fifteen percent the match will end and who has the higher aura will be determined the victor. We shall have our first spar so show you the rules." Goodwitch looked over all the students and determined her two opponents. "Can I have Mister Arc and Mister Winchester to the arena?" Cardin smirked thinking he's going have an easy win and Jaune internally sighed but smiled at the fact of beating Cardin. Jaune was upset at the fact of Cardin bullying him like knocking over his books was one example, although he did try to knock him into a rocket locker, but he tripped him and sent him away, all without Goodwitch knowing.

"Don't be disappointed when I beat you to a pulp Jauney-boy." Jaune didn't show any emotion to the jeer and prepared his gauntlets.

"We'll have to see huh Cardin?" Jaune smiled but inside, he was grinning evilly at the chance to beat down the resident bully.

Cardin hefted his mace over his shoulder and glared at the blonde in front of him. Jaune slipped into his stance but still had the smile on his face, as if taunting Cardin. Cardin decided that this blonde noodle was going down no matter what.

"Are both competitors ready?" Both Cardin and Jaune nodded. "Fight!" Miss Goodwitch moved away for the two to fight.

Cardin immediately surged forward with a swing to Jaune's head, but the blonde ducked and responded with an uppercut to force him back. Cardin wiped his mouth off on his sleeve and saw Jaune running towards him and swung at his mid-section to back him off. But to his surprise, Jaune activated the gravity dust in his left hand and punched the mace down and landed a right hook. Jaune didn't let up and moved into Cardin's personal space and started repeatedly jabbed into Cardin's armored chest, making Cardin jump back with his aura now in the yellow by Jaune. Cardin activated his semblance and caused a wave of explosions heading straight for Jaune and Jaune realized he doesn't have a way to move and crosses his arm and moves his center of gravity lower to withstand it. Jaune took a decent hit but stayed standing, Cardin getting more reckless and just swinging at Jaune but Jaune bobbed and weaved though the swings and landing more jabs in his defense. Deciding to finish it, Jaune knocked Cardin's mace to the opposite side of his body and jumps up in the air above Cardin's head. Jaune slammed the heel of his right foot into his face, sending him to the ground and into the red. Jaune moved away as Miss Goodwitch came in to the center of the arena, Cardin looking like he was about to get up and get revenge for getting beaten. He was about to grab his mace when he realized that he couldn't move, his body having a faint purple outline.

"I am going to have to prevent you from taking any actions that you'll regret." Goodwitch stared into Cardin's eyes with a glare that demanded obedience. "As you can see class, Mr. Winchester's aura has reached the red and has lost the match." Goodwitch looks at the Jaune. "Mr. Arc, you have strong close-range ability, but you need some ranged help if you can get it. You won't be able to beat an opponent if they can keep you away. Jaune nodded, thinking about having Ruby modify Chimera for him. "Mr. Winchester, you thought your strength would be able to overpower Mr. Arc, but he has shown to be quite agile to dodge your attacks and you were getting reckless and allowed him to chip away at your aura. Keep a level head and try not to telegraph your attacks to the opponent." Cardin just grunted in acknowledgement and walked away as class ended with Jaune being hugged by his team.

"You did great Jaune. I'm proud of your skills." Pyrrha gave him a genuine smile while Nora jumped on his back.

"You were great Jaune-Jaune! Although you really should have broken his legs…" Nora threw her right hand in feign annoyance but kept smiling.

"Maybe one of these days we should spar Jaune. I would like to see how my skills stack against yours." Ren spoke surprising Jaune as he didn't see him.

Jaune was about to agree but his scroll went off as a message from Ozpin himself asking him to appear in his office. Jaune sighed thinking he was in trouble for something, more likely for Nora almost destroying the dorm room for making pancakes herself.

"Sorry guys. I got to go see Ozpin really quick, but I promise to be right back!" Jaune ran out of the room to go to Ozpin's office for something.

* * *

 _A few hours earlier_

Ozpin was sitting at his desk wondering about Jaune's powers that he has yet to use and how to help him. Alexander let him know that his only son is a Harmonixer and is going to need all the fusions he could get now that an inevitable war is going to happen in his lifetime. He is going to need the gravestones and Amon if he's going to be able to at least be able to fight against other Huntsmen. His musing was cut short when a crow was tapping on his window. He opened the window and then the crow suddenly transformed into a scruffy looking male that had black hair that was slick back with a few bangs hanging out here and there, piercing red eyes that looked tired and weary. He wore a grey dress shirt and black dress pants with black dress shoes. He did smell like alcohol and his sword was collapsed on his lower back and had a small smirk on his face as he looked at Ozpin.

"Hey Oz. What do you need me for since you called me off earlier for me to come here?" Qrow sat on the chair in front of him and took a swig from his flask. Ozpin pulled out a picture of Jaune without telling Qrow who he is. The picture was when RWBY and JNPR were hanging out in the cafeteria having fun at Jaune's expense.

"Who's this kid? He looks like a watered-down version of Alex." Qrow took a closer look at the blond, already thinking Oz was messing with him.

"That's because he's Alexander's son, Jaune Arc. And he is the one thing we need to have on our side against her." Qrow looked at the only blond male in the group, knowing he's Alex's son just based on his face alone.

"Why is he special Oz? If you don't mind me asking he's kinda... normal if you ask me." Ozpin gave Qrow an knowing smirk behind his cup and decided to let him know who Jaune is.

"Jaune has a ultra-rare semblance that can turn tides instantly. See... He's a Harmonixer. The only one in this generation meaning a war is coming." Qrow's eyes widened and realized he can be an asset.

"Well consider this a… side-quest for your current mission. Locate any gravestones and I do believe that Amon is somewhere in Vacuo or in Mistral. If you can find them, I'll reward you handsomely." Ozpin crosses his fingers in front of him. Qrow was greatly considering since Ozpin rewards him with the strongest whiskey he can find and give him three bottles of the stuff, enough to last for eight months.

"Fine Oz you made a fine deal for me…" Ozpin interrupts quickly. "Three bottles for EACH gravestone you find and seven if you find Amon." Ozpin held out his hand for Qrow to shake to agree to the deal.

"Deal! I'll try whenever I can Oz." Qrow gives him a two-finger salute and transformed back into a crow and left.

'I suppose it isn't playing favorites if I try to better Jaune huh? He'll need all the help he can.'

Ozpin sent a message to Jaune asking him if he could see him in his office.

* * *

 _Present Time_

"Uh… Professor Ozpin? You called for me?" Jaune slowly walked in the office after receiving his message.

"Yes, take a seat Mr. Arc." Ozpin motioned for him to sit and kept his stoic gaze on Jaune.

"Um… Am I in trouble Professor?" Ozpin shook his head and had a small smile on his face.

"No, you are not in trouble Mr. Arc. I am just going to ask if you would like a private training room so that you can practice with your semblance in secret." Jaune nodded, knowing he's going to use it to its fullest.

"Now Mr. Arc, have you told your team all about your semblance?" Jaune looked a bit fearful since he hasn't but is planning on doing so.

"I'm just a bit scared that they'll ditch me or attack me for my fusions look monstrous, but I've resolved to at least tell my team. My dad told me trust is a two-way street and I need to trust them if they want to trust me." Jaune puffed out his chest in false bravado.

"It's not uncommon to be afraid since of who you are. But you do need to have some trust in your team so that you have someone to watch your back." Ozpin hid his smile in his coffee. "But I have delayed you long enough. Time for you to head back to your dorm. Have an enjoyable day Mr. Arc." Jaune got up from his seat and left to the elevator.

* * *

Jaune opened his dorm's door and saw Ren cooking some pancakes while Nora was in front of a whiteboard with Pyrrha trying to decode Jaune's semblance while she was writing down various theories.

"Uh... guys? What's up with the whiteboard and where did we get it?" Jaune walked in and sat on his bed when Ren gave Nora some pancakes.

"Well Ruby and her team and us are all trying to figure out what your semblance is and we only get one choice! I bet it is that your life is a dating sim!" Nora rose her hand with a pancake on it in the air.

"I bet it's the ability to amplify someone's aura. Considering I feel that you have a lot than a normal Huntsman." Pyrrha gave her two cents.

"Ren?" Jaune looked at Ren and saw him staring at him stoically. "I bet it is the ability to time travel." Jaune raised a eyebrow at that.

"So what did Ruby's team bet on my semblance being?" Jaune almost regretted his choice but he wanted to know what funny things his sister team thought of.

"Ruby bet on you being able to destroy any Grimm with a touch, Weiss with the ability to summon things through crystals, Blake thinks you can slow down time or speed up time on people and Yang believes that you can destroy weapons with your hands." Nora spewed out while Pyrrha chuckled at the ideas.

"Wow. And I thought your ideas were weird... Well I'm gonna let you guys know that now we have a training room we can use whenever we would like." Nora perked at that and grabbed Ren and threw him over her shoulder.

"Let's go!" At that, Nora disappeared with Jaune and Pyrrha walking to the training room.

Well at least she's enthusiastic for working out. Maybe that explains how she's so fit while eating all that pancakes.

"Let's go. I got the key for the room and I'm hoping she didn't break down the door or Miss Goodwitch will come down on us and punish us beyond what we can think of."

* * *

Nora was bench-pressing her and Jaune's weight by his guess while Jaune was practicing his punches and kicks on a practice dummy with armor. Pyrrha was just watching Jaune practice unknown to the blond himself that Pyrrha has a huge crush on him. Meanwhile Ren was just meditating and letting his aura flow through him.

"Hey Ren? Do you mind if I meditate with you? Nora and Pyrrha decided to spar." Ren nodded and Jaune sat in front on him cross legged, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. Ren was observing Jaune when Jaune's aura activated around his body. He noticed it is pure white but then the color changed to red then yellow.

Ren wondered how aura can change colors like that. Ruby did mention that the stone on his necklace can change color too and is made by his aura during one meeting about Jaune's semblance.

Jaune suddenly got up and stretched his back, popping it a bit. "Well I'm going to head back to the dorm. The door will lock after everyone leaves." Jaune walked away and then team RWBY was nearby the door as Jaune left.

RWBY snuck in as part of Nora's impromptu plan for them to scheme how to get Jaune to reveal his semblance as Yang and Ruby were getting antsy while Weiss can care less about Jaune. Nora was setting with Pyrrha as Ren was kicked out unfortunately for him with RWBY sitting in front of them.

"So... What evidence we have for Jaune's semblance?" Ruby asked while Nora shook her head.

"Nothing so far... All he was doing was practicing his attacks while Pyrrha..." Pyrrha blushed while the others were having a chuckle at her blush. "Was watching."

"Is he any good? Was he's stamina out of this world?" Yang teased Pyrrha while Ruby was just as red as Pyrrha.

"Yang...! Why did you have to say it like that...!" Ruby started hitting Yang to no avail.

"Why did we agree to help these two dolts on figuring out Arc's semblance?" Weiss looked to Blake for a reason while Blake was just reading.

"Maybe because Ruby asked us to and Yang threatened us behind her back?" Weiss flinched at the hidden threat Yang gave them as Ruby used her puppy-eyes.

"Well since we didn't gain anything..." Nora suddenly interrupted Yang as she got a text from Ren.

"Ren said Jaune's aura changed colors! That has to be a clue!" Nora started jumping up and down excitedly, not noticing that the sun was going down. Weiss however, noticed and they all left to their respective dorms when Pyrrha and Nora were greeted with food.

"Wow... Who cooked all this?" Pyrrha saw pancakes that were made by Ren while there was some pork-chops with a baked potato with green beans for Pyrrha.

"I did. Benefits of having a huge family that somehow has a few bad cooks." Jaune chuckled at his younger sister, Rouge's attempts at making toast. They had to replace a toaster.

"How big is your family anyways Jauney?" Nora inquired while Pyrrha thought of Jaune's family all being blond as he was.

"Well... You have my parents Alexander and Julia Arc, And my seven sisters." Nora and Pyrrha's jaws dropped at the mention of seven sisters.

"Can you tell us anything about them Jaune?" Pyrrha was blushing a bit but was curious about his siblings.

"Not tonight." Jaune raised his arms and stretched. "Cardin was bullying a student at dinner today and I decided to put him in his place but I got a detention after the Forever Falls trip due to me and Cardin fighting." Pyrrha was worried now.

"Why did you have to fight?!" Pyrrha exclaimed as Jaune sighed. "I don't like people picking on Faunus. It really gets on my nerves..."

Pyrrha sighed knowing she isn't going to change his mind but loved that he stood up for anyone, doesn't matter who they are.

"Alright Jaune. We better get some sleep for the trip tomorrow. We have a long day ahead." Pyrrha went into the bathroom to change while Ren and Nora was already asleep.

Jaune smiled, feeling lucky that he got a partner as supportive and helpful as Pyrrha. He was already in his sleepwear and laid in his bed, remembering the antics his sisters can pull him in and all the helpful tips that they gave him.

"And there's nothing I would change about them..." Jaune whispered to himself as he fell asleep.

* * *

 **A.N: Yes sorry about you guys waiting for a new chapter but I needed to add in a few scenes that I had thought of AFTER the fact of this chapter being done. And I realized that having Jaune reveal his semblance to his team early was kinda bad imo. So I'm working on CH.5 at the moment and I hope you guys love the humor and secret easter eggs I put into this chapter that would tickle at your funny bone.**

 **See you guys in the next chapter and like, follow and review if you guys liked this story! Golden out!**


	5. Forever Falling

_Hearts Eclipsed by Shadows_

 _Chapter Five: Forever Falling_

 **A.N: I'm very sorry about not getting a chapter out in a month or so! My laptop has been very annoying to deal with and I have to replace the charger next week. My mind goes overdrive for latest ideas and nothing is done for this story. I'll be doing a Lancaster one-shoot soon and then I'll introduce a new story, and I'll try to be on a schedule for the two or more. Now put down your torches and pitchforks as we get on with the show. And be happy we got a beta reader! He'll make sure that this isn't complete garbage.**

 ** _I don't own RWBY or the power that Jaune uses. RWBY belongs to RT and Monty._**

 ** _Beta Reader: Cr00cy_**

What woke Jaune up was Yuri yelling in his head to get a move on and that slackers get the wrath of Goodwitch. He groaned and hid himself under blanket so that he could tune out the voice in his head, but fate had other plans for the Arc.

"Wake up Fearless Leader!" Nora decided to be his alarm and belly flopped on him, forcing him up.

"Man…" Jaune groaned "I wish I could get five more minutes of sleep…" Seeing that everyone else were already dressed he decided to get up - if only to avoid being attacked again.

When Jaune was taking a shower, Yuri spoke up and told him that he would soon be able to fuse in real life - which was good news. That he need to do in secluded places to keep it secret - not so much. Knowing that everyone would be stalking him to find out his semblance made him a bit more worried.

" **You do need to keep up on your training. I can help a bit in the graveyard if those damn masks keep off us. They kind of hate us but fear me quite a bit."** said Yuri, Jaune nodded as he washed his hair off.

'So… Can I use any of the elements when I'm human?' He got out and dried himself off, putting on the dress jacket.

" **Not really. That's why you can use dust. But your aura can be attuned to certain ones to keep you safe. Each element makes you sort of harder to be taken down with dust. You can be a bit more resilient towards the four major elements. Light doesn't really do much except anything bright won't affect you as much and Dark just makes it harder to see you and easier for you to see in the dark."** Jaune walked out of the bathroom, managing to tie the tie well enough to pass Pyrrha's inspection.

"Well, let's get going to Port's class now. Hopefully I can stay awake for once." Ren nodded as Nora flailed dramatically walking behind Jaune as Pyrrha kept up to his pace.

As Prof. Port was spouting some tale about a Beowulf and a flute that can control Grimm, Jaune was taking notes while communicating with Yuri about changing dust elemental effects.

'If I have lightning dust in my hands, and used Dark, would this change it?'

" **It could be possible. You'd be the first to change dust using your aura, but you need a lab or something or you'll be the first test dummy the effects will latch onto."** Jaune nodded while continuing to take notes. He gave up on Port for a while after something about the shattered moon so, he decided to write down the combinations he could do with dust and his elemental aura.

Pyrrha was taking notes so he did not have to worry about missing out on this class as team RWBY gave up except for Weiss. Ruby kept up as best as she could without going to sleep, Blake read her secret pleasure (Smut…) disguising it as a textbook while Yang gave up and fell asleep. Despite her falling asleep, she was a very smart person that meant you can't judge a book by its cover. After Port's class would be the trip to Forever Falls with Miss Goodwitch to collect sap for Prof. Peach, a teacher that no one has yet to meet or even see around the campus. Jaune knew that Cardin was gunning for him since he made him back off from bullying a faunus with rabbit ears, Velvet he thought her name from memory. Then there was him beating Cardin easily in Combat Class with ease since all he tried to do was hit him with his mace with brute strength while Jaune could dodge and duck under his attacks and retaliate.

The bell suddenly rang and both teams left to eat before going to the bullhead docks to go to Forever Falls.

Jaune was enjoying chicken nuggets again as Pyrrha disapproved his choice of food but relented since Jaune did burn off all the food he ate anyways as she took a bite of a turkey sandwich. Weiss was glaring at Ruby for having nothing but cookies again with a glass of milk while herself was eating chicken pasta, Blake was snacking on a tuna sandwich while Yang had had some yogurt with walnuts. Nora was eating pancakes that no one still knew where she got them. They suspected the green ninja next to her was supplying her with them while he had fresh ramen.

"Hey Ruby, could I ask for your assistance with Chimera?" Ruby immediately stopped eating and squealed loudly while reappearing at Jaune's side, lifting up his weapon.

"What ideas to you have?" Jaune showed her his notes on Chimera's upgrades. One was to funnel dust into the weapon from canisters on his upper arm held by a stretchable band on both arms. It helped continuously fuel the weapon's need for dust and had a mode for "Overdrive". Overdrive allowed Jaune to use up a bit more dust for an increase in the dust's ability.

"Oo… This one would be so much better! The overdrive function would make you a better fighter while keeping up with your dust usage. Plus I believe that Vacuoan glass would be best for the canisters." Jaune had a confused look on his face about the glass.

"Vacuoan glass?"

"The strongest type of glass there is. It can withstand a Goliath's full weight and most natural disasters and even a fully charged attack." Weiss interjected for them.

"Oh. That would be best and maybe have the strap be attached to leather with a metal plate for protection and have six tubes going to the weapon to funnel the dust into it." Ruby added in that made Jaune excited.

"Perfect! But we need to make it after this trip since I need my weapon." Ruby nodded and took Jaune's notes.

"Well are you guys gonna leave us _Yanging_ or what?" Yang snickered as everyone else groaned as they left the cafeteria, Jaune smiled at the pun when no one noticed.

As the bullhead reached the forever dyed red forest, Jaune looked out the window to admire the scenery. Jaune was broken out of his musing by Pyrrha putting her hand on his shoulder signaling him that they arrived and to depart. Everyone landed safely except for Jaune who tripped at the end and fell on his face with his feet touching his head.

"Why does the universe hate me… I tied my shoes before I got up…" Jaune groaned as Pyrrha helped him up.

"I'm sure the universe doesn't hate you… you just have a bit of bad luck that's all." suddenly a crow flew out of a tree.

"I think I saw that crow before." Jaune and Pyrrha walked over to a tree and Jaune pierced it with Crocea.

Suddenly Jaune sneezed so harshly that he scared Blake in the distance. He sat away from the tree hoping that the fresh air would clear up his sinuses. Jaune decided to focus his aura on his head to clear it up a bit and it was working slowly.

"Ugh… I don't know why I'm the only one in this group that is allergic to this stuff. Hell, Nora's eating all the sap…!" In the distance, Ren told Nora to stop and will give her pancakes covered in it in which she stopped eating it, allowing Pyrrha and Ren to fill up six jars of sap.

Suddenly he was hit with a jar of sap. Jaune shot up and sneezed loudly for Ruby to hear.

"Son of a bitch! Achoo!" Jaune started wiping the sap off his head when he heard buzzing.

"What…?" Jaune saw what was after him and he scrambled to grab a fire dust crystal.

Rapier Wasps are the one thing that no one wanted to get stung by since they bypass aura completely and since his head was the target, it'll hurt and possibly blind him if he doesn't act. Jaune changed his aura to fire and charged the crystal causing it to glow.

"First test! Fire with fire dust!" Jaune tossed the crystal at the wasps and the crystal suddenly cracked and a firestorm consumed the wasps, gaining his friends attention.

"Hey that worked! Yeah!" Jaune pumped his fists in the air and sneezed loudly again.

"Jaune! You okay?!" Pyrrha looked around and saw some smoke rising off the grass and some Rapier Wasps dead.

"Yeah I'm fine. Just got some sap on me but I might know who did it…" they all narrowed their eyes at the thought of Cardin doing this, Jaune could have been seriously injured.

"Damn Jaune it seems you're on fire today huh?" Everyone groaned but Jaune smiled at both the pun and his friends checking up on them.

Suddenly Russell, Dove and Sky ran away screaming about a Ursa. Jaune decided that even if Cardin was a prick, there was no need for anyone to die.

"Yang, Ren, Nora and Blake, go get Miss Goodwitch as soon as possible! Everyone else with me! I'm going to Cardin!" the four nodded and ran off as Jaune ran to Cardin with Ruby, Weiss and Pyrrha trailing behind him.

Cardin was on the floor with his hand up to ward off the attack when Jaune punched the Ursa Major back.

"Get up and get away!" Jaune jumped over his paw and kicked its head back. Cardin was staring numbly at Jaune protecting him after being so much of a douche earlier to him and throughout the semester.

"Dammit Cardin go!" Jaune ducked and preformed an uppercut to the Ursa and suddenly kicking it down.

Cardin got up just as the rest of the group arrived and see Jaune beating down the Ursa with ease. Ruby was about to jump in and help when Pyrrha held out her hand to stop her just as Jaune used up his gravity dust and uppercuts the ursa, knocking its head off.

"He had it covered after all huh?" Ruby smiled while being a bit embarrassed while Weiss just walks away.

"He's strong because he just trains whenever he has the time. But I think soon he'll start being a part of his team." Pyrrha looked a bit sad at the fact of Jaune just trains day in and day out.

"Well why don't we talk to him about it? He's not the type to just ignore our concerns." Pyrrha nodded as Ruby smiled and walked towards Jaune.

As they reached Jaune, they saw him sneezing continuously and shaking his head. Both Ruby and Pyrrha were smiling and giggling at the sight and decided to help him out and get rid of the sap off his head with some water.

"Thanks guys. Ugh… My head is killing me from all this sap…" Jaune held his hand on his face to help with the headache.

Miss Goodwitch just arrived and saw the disappearing corpse of an ursa with Jaune being praised by Ruby and Pyrrha while Cardin was standing off to the side.

"Cardin!" Jaune called to him. "Leave me and my friends alone or next time it won't be pleasant." Cardin understood the underlying threat and now had a new sense of respect for the Arc.

"What happened here Mister Arc?" Glynda narrowed her eyes at Jaune and he told her about the rapier wasps and hearing from the rest of CRDL that there was a Ursa and Jaune found Cardin almost killed by the ursa when he jumped in and killed it.

"I see… Well excellent job and handling a major all by yourself but now all the teams have collected the sap and we must be heading back to Beacon." Goodwitch left with everyone following behind to go back to Beacon. Goodwitch gave Cardin a glare that promised retribution back at Beacon for his actions.

Team JNPR was hanging out in their dorm when Pyrrha had an idea for all of them to talk about themselves.

"Guess I'll start. I really like cheesecake. Whenever my mom would make it, all my sisters and I would fight for who got the first slice. More often than not, Rouge would get it because of the puppy eyes. That and we all doted on her anyways. Jaune smiled at the memory.

"I really like chocolate. My sponsors would somehow find my hiding spots and get rid of it since I needed to be fit for my image." Pyrrha smiled brightly.

"Well luck be it my mom sent me some chocolates earlier on the week and she made too much." Jaune handed Pyrrha a chocolate bar that his mom sent.

"Besides meditating, I do like to dance since it helped with my movements for my fighting style." Ren added in after Pyrrha ate the chocolate bar and loved it.

"I like going on hikes around the Emerald forest. Not many people think I relax like that and it helps when there's grimm there!" Nora smiled while holding a hand up.

"One day let's all take a hike in the Emerald Forest then. I know I've been training a lot lately, but it's ingrained in my mind to continuously train to get better. But now I have my team and my friends to have my back. I promise to start hanging out with everyone more often along with team RWBY. And an Arc never goes back on his promise." Pyrrha smiled since Jaune resolved to start hanging out with all of them. Nora was happy for more hikes with her team.

Jaune was walking with his team to the cafeteria when RWBY caught up with them while Ruby was talking about his upgrades to his weapon while the rest were behind them whispering about Jaune semblance even more.

"But normal fire dust doesn't even get that hot or burn that much of an area… Maybe he can augment elements?" Weiss whispered to Yang, but Ren shook his head no.

"His aura changes colors but how can he use elements like that? His gloves would be even more powerful than Yang at full rage." Yang put her index finger and thumb to her chin.

"Doesn't the Arc family have like a secondary ability? Somewhat a semblance but something all Arc's can use?" Weiss immediately nodded slowly.

"Arc's can use malice. Since they came from a harmonixer bloodline that thrives on it, it would make sense they can use it in some degree." everyone nodded in agreement but how can it explain the dust's power?

"I doubt it can enhance dust. We don't even know the extent of malice's ability." Blake added in and immediately went to her book.

Everyone sighed since she was right about malice. Malice is an unknown to many people except the harmonixers and bloodlines connected to them. Atlas has tried numerous times to have the Arc family show their powers but there hasn't been a Harmonixer ever since the Great War.

"Guess we'll have to meet later this week to find out Jauney's secret!" Yang punched her hands together as she sat next to Blake as everyone started eating.

"So next week we can go ahead and work on the upgrade?" Ruby nodded while Jaune smiled and ruffled Ruby's hair.

"Thanks Rubes." Ruby swatted his hands away and gave Jaune a glare that really didn't do anything.

"So, what's up with the sneezing at Forever Falls eh?" Jaune scratched the back of his head while looking away. Jaune mumbled something that Yang couldn't hear so she leaned in with her hand behind her ear to hear him.

"What was that Jauney?" Jaune gave a heavy sigh and looked around.

"I'm allergic to the sap. I forgot to take the medicine and I have uncontrollable sneezing and I get all stuffy in my nose." Jaune sighed as Yang gave a wicked smile for the ammo while everyone just looked at him.

"Any other problems with your family at all?" Ruby spoke while Yang looked hungry for ammo.

"Other besides the fact my family has air sickness besides me? Nothing really and that soon you'll meet them by the time of the tournament. My family wants to see my friends and my team and all that." all of RWBY looked at Jaune and wondered about his family.

"Any stories to tell us? I have a lot of stories about Ruby here. There was…" Ruby was quick to cover Yang's mouth to prevent her from saying anything. Jaune just laughed at the sibling's antics.

"We don't let the youngest, Rouge cook whatsoever. She somehow has the ability to burn whatever it is. One time and we still don't know how but she burned cereal." Yang just laughed while Weiss had an incredulous look on her face. Blake and the rest of JNPR just looked at Jaune.

As soon as Yang was about to say something, but the bell rang, and the two teams got up and left for their dorms since they had no other classes after the trip. Weiss suddenly got an idea for both teams to hang out.

"I think it would be best if we could greet the students from the other academies and we as representatives of Beacon, we must greet them." Weiss informed to both teams.

"Yeah sure. Why not Weiss-cream." Yang smiled while Weiss is a bit heated at the pun and the nickname.

"My team doesn't have anything to do today so why not Snow Angel." Jaune shrugged while Yang snickered at the nickname while Pyrrha had a hidden scowl on her face.

"Why does the two blondes have an affinity to say unrefined nicknames." Weiss scowled at the two blondes.

"Honestly it's because how you acted earlier. Plus, it's payback for calling me scraggly." Jaune had an uncharacteristic smirk on his face as the teams boarded the bullhead to go to the docks.

Jaune didn't like the smell of fish at all and Ruby shared his sentiment perfectly while Blake was smiling ear to ear.

"It smells like fish…" Ruby closed her nose with her fingers while making a disgusted face.

"Yes, it does…" Blake was still smiling while her bow was twitching wildly.

"And this is why I don't like the sea whatsoever… Ugh…" Jaune used the back of his hand to wipe off his nose of the stench.

"Why don't you like the sea? The beaches are so nice and all the beautiful women wearing swimsuits." Yang teased Jaune while leaning close while Jaune blushed and looked away.

Ruby started hitting Yang while students of various schools were arriving by the docks when they saw a guy with a monkey's tail and an open shirt with blue jeans and sneakers dropped a banana peel on an officer's face.

"Sun…? No way…" Jaune whispered as RWBY chased after him.

"Should we help them Jaune?" Pyrrha came up behind him while Nora looked excited like normal and Ren was ready to calm her down.

"Nah. they won't catch him at all. We'll find him later." Jaune waved his hand dismissively since Sun was a good friend from Mistral.

Later on, JNPR was hanging out at an ice cream place when RWBY popped up with Weiss and Blake arguing quite loudly about faunus.

"What happened between those two? They were kind of normal when you guys left." Ruby and Yang sighed and sat down before them.

"Weiss said some unsavory things about faunus and the White Fang. Blake got defensive and they started fighting." Ruby said while ordering a strawberry shake while Yang ordered a cone of sherbet.

"Well… My dad told me about the old White Fang and that they fought using peaceful tactics not what they are doing now. I feel bad for the faunus and that's why I fight for them a bit." Jaune spoke seriously while Ruby and Yang were eating. "But what the Fang are doing now isn't helping. Violence does not beget violence and it makes both sides fight harder." Jaune shook his head in sadness.

Jaune more arguing from Weiss and Blake and decided to break it up for their team's sake. Jaune walked to them hearing Weiss say that the White Fang killed board members and ruins her life due to her father. Blake was getting more heated and defensive of faunus and kind of snarled silently.

"Ok ok… We need to end this due to your teams looking out for your well beings and two…" Jaune hands both of them a cone of ice cream. Weiss had gotten French Vanilla and despise her love of seafood, Blake had gotten Rocky Road. Jaune got it from their team telling him what they liked.

Both begrudgingly said thanks to Jaune before walking over to their teams. The argument is forgotten for the moment as Ruby was talking about her new friend Penny as she was acting weird but was just nice and awesome. Suddenly Jaune got a text from Sun and Jaune forgot that Sun had his number.

" _S:_ _Sup dude? I saw you at the docks earlier and all those girls. Can't believe you got that lucky!"_ Jaune groaned and started texting Sun back, ignoring everything in the background.

" _J: Well one is my teammate while the other was denying her feelings for the other male on my team and the four others are my friends. Neptune better be on a leash around them or you'll get another indian burn on your tail!"_ Sun immediately replied.

" _S:_ _No need for that again! I didn't know that was your sister he was hitting on! I'll try to control him, but you know he must be 'cool' around the ladies. I swear he'll be more of a troublemaker than me and that's impossible!"_ Jaune chuckled as Pyrrha was talking to Yang about something.

" _J_ : _At least you know to back off if they're not interested. Neptune doesn't have that switch yet. I'll see you at Beacon alright? Let's catch up on old times with a round of Fatal Fighting like we used to. No endless combos you like to do!"_ Jaune laughed and everyone decided to walk back to Beacon.

Jaune was doing push-ups in front of his head as everyone was getting ready to go to bed but over in RWBY's room, more arguing was going on and Jaune was worried for his friends.

"I can't believe *exhale* that they're fighting again… I just hope nothing bad happens." Jaune got up and put his shirt on while Pyrrha looked like she was daydreaming.

"I share your sentiments as well Jaune. They work so well together that it could harm their team." Ren shared his thoughts while Nora was nodding and stretching.

"Maybe we're tired of being pushed around!" Blake yelled from their room and suddenly they heard a door slam and Jaune got up and got Chimera on.

"I'll go see what's going on with Blake. Stay here guys." Jaune walked out of the door as JNPR got ready to sleep.

Blake stood in front of the statue of Jaune's ancestor that won the Great War lamenting that her team won't want her back because she's a faunus.

"Honestly… You look nicer without the bow Blake." Blake spun around so quickly to see Jaune smiling at her.

"You… You don't care that I'm a faunus Jaune?" Jaune shook his head no, still smiling.

"It kind of makes sense. You stood up for a faunus you don't even know about and that bow kind of twitches at times and I honestly thought it was the wind moving it at times. I'm kind of slow about that…" Jaune rubbed the back of his head as Blake smiled at Jaune's thoughts and walked up to him. "But I'm hoping soon you'll talk to your team. Ruby and Yang don't really care that you're a faunus."

"I need to prove that the White Fang isn't behind these robberies. Then I'll talk to them but promise you won't tell them where I'm at…!" Blake gave Jaune a pointed glare and Jaune chuckled.

"Scout's honor. I won't say anything. But promise me you'll come back." Jaune held out his hand as Blake gave it a shake.

"Nice to see you two getting along. Plus Jaune's right, you so look better without the bow." Sun popped up and stood next to Blake.

"Nice to see you Sun. Keep her safe or I'll…" Sun interrupted Jaune as he was about to say something

"Yes I'll keep her safe or I'll get a indian burn on my tail yeah yeah." Sun waved his hand dismissively as Jaune punched his arm lightly.

"Fine. Go you two and figure out what's happening and don't be afraid to give me a call alright?" Blake and Sun nodded as they ran off into the night.

Jaune walked back into his dorm room and fell in his bed, hoping nothing goes wrong with Blake and her mission and that RWBY doesn't fracture.

'I'll help them anyway I can. Arc's promise…'. Jaune fell asleep just as Yuri spoke in Jaune's head.

' **You'll be a great hero just like you wanted to be Jaune. Just don't give up your light. You must be strong like everyone else here.'**

 **A.N: So sorry for being gone so long so here's a new chapter for you guys and I'm hoping you guys like it. I'm getting the hang of writing so it'll be better on its own pace but I got Cr00cy to beta read this and he'll be making more like… polished trash if anything. We are now heading into the Blake arc or what I like to call… "Blake's self-appointed mission that pretty much proves that she listens to linkin park by herself so no one can judge her." So see you guys soon with another chapter and the one-shot!**


	6. The Secret Mission

_Hearts Eclipsed by Shadows_

 _Chapter Six: The Secret Mission_

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 **A.N: Yes, I'm not dead thanks to me having more of a muse for this story and it has granted me mercy! Now we enter the Blake "Arc" (what? I saw my joke and I am not sorry whatsoever and the ship is okay.) and leave a like, review or follow it if you just want to or… send a pigeon or something. A dove would be nice. Now onto the show! *Throws confetti out of my pockets. *  
**

Jaune woke to a sound of buzzing scroll. He checked it and saw one new message from Ozpin. Instead of checking it he decided to use the bathroom first, nodding to Pyrrha who just woke up. When he was done, rubbing sand out of his eyes, he looked at the message from Ozpin.

 _"I have found something useful for you. I'll need to see you three days from now, on the weekend. Your team and team RWBY must be present."_

"Well great… Possibly a mission before the dance and that is going to suck…" Jaune whispered to himself while he rubbed his face and got dressed for the day.

He then turned to his team.

"Guys I got a message from Prof. Ozpin. This weekend we need to see him along team RWBY. I'm thinking a mission before the dance." everyone nodded when the other two had ideas as well.

"Maybe it's to give us sloths! Or pancakes?!" Nora exclaimed while Ren just sighed.

"Or maybe he wants to talk to us about our performance?" Pyrrha added in her two cents as she went to the bathroom to change.

"I don't know, but this will be concerning us and RWBY. So, in three days, we need to see Ozpin." Jaune said as he finished tying his tie.

Pyrrha came out of the bathroom ready when Nora ran in and got ready for the day as well.

"I was thinking of taking that hike later in the day after classes. Sounds good everyone?" Nora was happy and everyone else agreed for the relaxing hike.

As JNPR was walking in the hallway to get to classes, RWY came out. They all looked worse for wear - Ruby and Yang had bags under their eyes and Weiss looked a bit runned down.

"You guys okay? You look like the sandman decided to give you a knuckle sandwich instead of dust." Ruby just sighed as Yang clenched her hands into fists for a second. Jaune spoke worried for their health.

"We're worried about Blake… I wish she could have talked to us, but she just ran and now we don't know where she could be…" Ruby said sadly. Yang was seething behind Ruby with her eyes changed in anger.

Jaune nodded as they all got to Prof. Port's class. Jaune was talking with Yuri while Pyrrha and Yang were speaking about Blake.

'So… Is there any way for me to find Blake using my aura or something?' Jaune said.

" **Not really. You'll just have to hope Sun's quick enough to send you the location of where they're at."** Yuri said as Jaune sighed out of earshot.

'So just hope and pray? I hate doing that at times.' Jaune sat in his usual seat in Port's while Ruby passed notes between them about his weapon.

" **I know you don't like it but it's all we got for us. Maybe she'll message us?"** Jaune yawned as Port's tale was affecting him in the background as Ruby was knocked out for once. Jaune agreed to give her his own weapon after class today and she'll get it done by next week.

'Well Ruby did say that after class tomorrow, they'll go out searching for Blake and I'm going to help in secret. I'll just tell my team I'm going out to Vale and I'll look for her myself.' Jaune said.

" **And maybe your team won't be upset that you're ditching the hiking trip to help search for Blake…"** Jaune's eyes opened in panic when he realized he was supposed to go hiking with his team.

'Ah… Crap.' Jaune slammed his head on his desk. Unfortunately, Prof. Port heard it and swiftly looked at Jaune.

"Ah! A volunteer! Go get ready for a demonstration Mister Arc!" Jaune groaned and got up to change into his fighting attire.

Few moments later Jaune stood in the middle on the classroom, in front of violently shaking cage. Jaune didn't have his usual weapon so he decided to unsheathe Crocea Mors for this fight and positioned himself in his stance with the shield firm.

"Are you ready Mister Arc?" Jaune nodded the okay as Prof. Port destroyed the lock as a Alpha Beowulf came out and roared loudly.

"Eh shut up…" Jaune ran up and bashed its head back with the shield and returned to his stance. The alpha didn't like that and tried to swat Jaune away, but he blocked the claw with the shield and slashed at its exposed ribs. It roared in pain and kicked Jaune away. He got to his feet at the end of the roll and got his shield in position. The Grimm didn't like that it's opponent was still standing so it lunged at him, but Jaune decided to end this and used an aura-infused swing to lop it's head off.

"There we go." Jaune moved his hands in a sweeping-up gesture and put Crocea Mors away.

"Bravo Mister Arc! Nice show of your swordsmanship." Jaune nodded in thanks and left to change into his uniform.

As Jaune returned and sat in his seat, Prof. Port was telling a new tale of his youth that seemed to knock out a decent amount of his classmates. Ruby was surprisingly still awake blueprinting the upgrades for Chimera while Weiss was giving input for dust usage and his overdrive form. Overdrive allowed Jaune to use up a little bit more dust but for a bigger kick.

"So, what's with the different Overdrive forms?" Ruby inquired about the notes.

"Ah. I can use a bit of my aura on different dust and it makes it stronger, hence Overdrive."

"So, with Fire you can be like Yang?" Yang looked over Ruby's shoulder to see what's going on.

"Yep. And each element is stronger than its base form." Ruby whistled at that.

"And it'll be expensive since doing that will use up more dust to perform what you wrote down." Jaune nodded at Weiss' advice and wrote that down.

"Thank you for helping me out Weiss." he said as Weiss smirked.

"Of course. Who else would be as knowledgeable as me in dust." Ruby just shook her head as Jaune sat down.

As the two teams walked away from Port's class, Jaune noticed that Weiss was stiff as a board while Yang had an arm wrapped around the Heiress' shoulder.

"Well we got some stuff to do so we'll see you guys later!" Yang walked away from Weiss in tow as Ruby followed using her semblance. Jaune was devising a plan to get to Vale and needed an excuse in case his team says anything.

As Jaune grabbed his wallet to get ready to go shopping for dust, the rest of his team was getting ready for their hike that Ozpin approved for them as it was in his words 'A wonderful activity that all young people should try.'

"Sorry guys but with Ruby and Weiss working on the upgrade, I need some extra dust. I'll be joining you guys later." Jaune ran out of the dorm just before RWY left to find Blake. Suddenly he got a message from Sun.

 _S: Hey man! Blake took away my scroll, but I kept my backup hidden! BTW We'll be going to the docks since I told her that I've overheard a conversation about a Schnee dust shipment coming in tonight._

 _J: Thanks mon"king"! I'll pop up later tonight but first I need to get dust for my weapon upgrades. I'll still be bare handed if I do fight man._

 _S: Please spare me… You can kick anyone's ass bare handed if you wanted to! Plus, I never understood why you gave me that nickname… It sounds stupid but endearing._

 _J: To be honest, if you put on armor and a crown you'd look like a king. And do I really need to mention the second reason?_

 _S: Good point, and really, a king?! That'd be so cool! You just gave me an idea for Halloween!_

 _J: Oh god. What's Neptune going to be, the princess?_

 _S: Dude! That's brilliant! Well got to go or she'll see this! See ya!_

As the bullhead landed near the city, Jaune stretched his back while popping his neck. He sighed in relief as he stepped off the bullhead and headed straight for the dust shop that Ruby was at the night she was accepted by Ozpin.

"Thank god that dad sends me money at times to help with the dust. I'd be broke if it wasn't for him." Jaune walked through the store's front door while the shopkeeper said his usual greeting to all customers.

"Welcome to Dust to Dawn! I hope you find everything you need."

"Thank you!" Jaune grabbed about 4 vials of each type of dust he needed. He also grabbed a few crystals for his experiments over the week. The price total came up to 550 lien and as Jaune paid the total, he got a text from Sun that things are getting ready to happen.

"Gods… Thanks!" Jaune ran out of the building and put the dust in his pouches and pockets as he ran to the docks. He already heard the explosions as he got in and saw Sun defeating a bunch of White Fang members while Blake was trying to hit Torchwick. Jaune sighed as he jumped in and kicked Roman away, giving Blake time to catch a breath.

"You okay Blake?" he asked, holding her for support

She nodded, not taking her eyes from Roman.

"Well, we got a new hero entering the field, eh?" Torchwick sarcastically spoke towards Jaune. The young hunter turned his attention to him and narrowed his eyes.

"I'll distract him. You help Sun and get him here." Jaune got into his fighting stance while Roman just looked bored and flicked some ash off his cigar.

"Aw… Heroes aren't all that great kid. Just run blondie." Jaune shook his head and ran at Roman. Roman swiped at the blond's head with his cane, but Jaune knocked it up slightly. Roman kicked Jaune in the gut to get some distance. Jaune rolled back, planting his hand on the ground, and pushed himself up. He then calmly walked back into position and threw a left punch. Roman knocked it away with his cane but Jaune's kick pushed him away. The Criminal fell back, and used his cane to stay on his feet...

"You aren't half bad" said Roman, smirking "But." he pointed his cane at Jaune "I'm still out of your league, kid." he added, firing a round from Melodic Cudgel. Jaune quickly changed his element to Fire and crossed his arms, taking the brunt of the damage. Roman laughing died off when he saw Jaune just standing there, unharmed.

"What?" It was Jaune's turn to smirk "Expected me to kneel over after that shot? I'm tougher than you think."

As Jaune was about to rush Roman, Ruby appeared with a ginger girl with a bow in her hair.

"Well isn't it your bedtime Red?" Roman smirked as he fired a shot towards an unsuspecting Ruby that was distracted by Jaune being there. Ruby was blasted away, and the ginger girl hopped down helping Sun and Blake take down remaining White Fang grunts.

"And it's going to be yours too!" Roman barely blocked the haymaker aimed for his head and kicked Jaune in the jaw, grabbed his arm and tossed him over his shoulder. Jaune groaned in pain as he slowly got up but Roman slammed the handle of his cane over the blond's head. Despite pain and disorientation, the young hunter still tried to get up.

"What kind of skull do you have? Most huntsman would get knocked out by that?" Roman said with a bit of snark.

"Sorry to disappoint you but I don't go down easy. Even if you swing both ways…" That earned a sickening smack across Jaune's temple from Roman. Torchwick hated when someone was talking back to him and now the kid earned the beating he's going to get.

Suddenly Roman felt his world shift and he landed on his back as Jaune kicked his feet from underneath him. A second kick soon followed, creating some distance between two men.

" **Jeez…Even I'm getting a headache from that dude's hits. Although he does dress kind of nicely. The bowler hat looks stupid though."** Jaune chuckled then groaned as his head throbbed in pain. Suddenly Jaune was blasted off his feet by Roman's weapon and he rolled on the ground.

"I hate that matchstick of yours Roman…!" He got up and got into position again as Roman swaggered into Jaune's sight with a smirk. Jaune realized he hated that smirk, thankfully Yuri had a plan.

" **Let me take over for a bit. I'll teach this weirdo a new word for pain."**

'Could you even do that?' Jaune had a frown on his face secretly eyeing Roman from a far.

" **It won't be long since us spirit guides don't have a lot of aura but I'm still as good as I was a long time ago. Just imagine some reins and I'll take over."** Jaune did what Yuri suggested. His aura flashed from white to dark purple. This surprised Roman, who stared at the young hunter warily. Jaune opened his eyes - they were blood-red.

"Aw… Lost that snark eh?" He said with smirk. "I guess with your fashion sense it's to be expected." Roman frowned and aimed at Jaune again, but the boy still had this infuriating smirk.

Roman fired.

Yuri knocked the projectile away and ran at him enhancing his speed with a bit of wind dust. Before Roman can blink, Yuri was on him landing a punch on his gut, doubling Roman over.

Before Roman could speak, Yuri kicked him in the face and sent him crashing through a container. Roman bounced on the floor before landing next to the parked bullheads.

His partner Neo popped up and guided him in.

They took off with some dust, other two bullheads running interference for Roman to get away when a green colored laser cut through the two.

Yuri kneeled on the ground and the dark purple aura disappeared leaving a pure white one. Jaune took back the reins of his body before pain of the dust usage hit him.

"Everything hurts… Why did I think giving you the reins was the best idea?" Yuri chuckled in his mind as Jaune kept trying to stand while Ruby and Blake found him.

" **Because honestly, I forgot your body hasn't adapted to using dust yet. Once you get a level three fusion, your body becomes attuned to that element a lot better. I'm used to having all my fusions."**

Ruby and Blake helped Jaune up to his feet and taken him to the ambulance to check if he didn't take too much damage. Blake had already talked to Weiss who forgave the runaway Faunus so team RWBY was back together

Meanwhile Pyrrha called Yang to find any info about Jaune. Ruby told her how he fought Torchwick to help Blake fight the White Fang. She also mentioned Sun was there helping, and he was the one who sent a text to Jaune letting him know where they were.

Jaune was cleared quickly but was told to be careful because the blows he suffered could hurt even more if he strained himself with training and was told to have five days off as a recovery period. Team RWBY and Sun was nearby as Jaune walked away from the ambulance with a slight limp and a pained expression. Ruby ran up to him using her semblance and started looking over him.

"Are you okay Jaune?!" Jaune chuckled and rubbed the top of her head reassuringly.

"Yeah I'm fine Rubes. Torchwick just gave me a bit of a concussion but my aura is fixing it and my body is dealing with the aftereffects of me using dust."

"Why is dust messing up your body?" Ruby cocked her head to the side when Weiss jumped in for them.

"Using dust with your body has serious drawbacks since our body can't handle nature's wrath. No one can really use it repeatedly without either dying or serious side effects." Ruby's eyes widened as did everyone else's. Jaune shrugged and winced at the movement.

"Well consider my body kicking my ass now… I think that only using it for five seconds kind of harmed me badly." Before anyone say anything, Miss Goodwitch showed up with a massive scowl and a tick mark on her forehead.

"Well, anyone want to add anything before we all get killed by Goodwitch?" Jaune spoke as her glare was directed on him and with all his power and Yuri's determination, he managed to now cower and crawl under a rock. Everyone else flinched and cowered from her gaze while she berated RWBY. Jaune hoped he will escape her attention, but she told him that once he recovers, he'll get the same lecture as the others.

After the Beacon deputy left, Blake walked up to Jaune and gently hugged him.

"Thank you so much for helping me out." Jaune was shocked at first, but eventually shook himself out of his stupor and hugged back gently, and then pulled away from Blake.

"Its what friends do Blake. Never forget that alright? Your team will always be there for you." He smiled at Blake as she walked away. Yang walked up and gave him the same gentle hug.

"Thank you so much… You brought our kitty cat back…" Jaune hugged back and smiled.

"It's the least I can do for you guys okay? You guys are my friends and I'll do anything for my friends." Yang pulled away as everyone left with Goodwitch to go back to Beacon and get some rest.

When Jaune got out of the infirmary with medications, his team was waiting for him outside of the building. Pyrrha gave him light glare, Nora had a grin on her face, and Ren had a hand on Nora's shoulder to keep her calm and not hurt her leader anymore. Pyrrha couldn't keep up the glare and decided to hug him softly.

"I'm happy you're okay Jaune." Jaune smiled and hugged her back while Nora yelled and held her right hand up in victory.

"Our Glorious Leader has returned from the battlefield and has emerged victorious!" Pyrrha let Jaune go while he was smiling at Nora's antics. Ren just had a small smile aimed at Jaune for surviving his fight against Torchwick.

"Thanks guys. Plus, I'm sorry for not going hiking with you." Ren shook his head while Pyrrha had a small smile.

"We actually didn't go. Nora wanted something to eat and Pyrrha had to talk to her agent about something, so we decided to do it another day with RWBY joining us this time. Weiss complained but she seemed excited to go hiking with us since Atlas doesn't have green forests like us." Ren spoke calmingly. Suddenly JNPR received message on their scrolls, summoning them to Ozpin office. It said it was important matter that involved them and team RWBY.

When JNPR arrived in Ozpin's office, they saw RWBY was already present. They were sitting on chairs, looking at white sheet covering one of windows, where Ozpin was projecting details of some mission... JNPR sat in the seats near RWBY while Ozpin tapped his cane on the floor to gain their attention.

"Now, I understand this is way before students usually get their official missions, but this is a special case. I believe your potential makes this a bit easier on everyone."

"What's the mission Professor?" Ruby asked while everyone else nodded in agreement.

"The two teams will be taking a bullhead into Southern Mistral to the village of Fengtian and from there you'll head to Zhaoyang village. Zhaoyang village has been under investigation but the problem is that any courier that goes there has disappeared. The Council isn't willing to send Huntsman since it's not a Grimm threat and the Haven can't go against them. Your job is to go there and report anything unusual and deal with it. Any questions?" there were none.

"Good. Now rest and get ready. After tomorrow's classes, you'll be sent to Mistral to deal with the threat. Mister Arc, stay behind since I'll need to speak to you specifically." Everyone gave him some kind of mourning glance and Yang took it a step farther and patted his shoulder in fake sadness as they all left.

"Y-Yes Professor Ozpin?" Jaune have a half smile while Ozpin gave a wave at his behavior.

"You are not in trouble. There's some details that I left out for only you specifically. One of my associates has located the Water Gravestone in the village so I'd like you to go ahead and grab it and use it to your advantage. Your family would like to help out with this village problem but they're kind of busy in Haven on teaching other Huntsman about Grimm and other topics."

"Thank you, Professor. I'll be sure to grab it and arrive back with no trouble!" Ozpin smiled and took a sip of his hot chocolate mixed with coffee but giving Jaune a serious look.

"This might compromise your promise to keep your semblance hidden so if you need to, use it. Your team won't care about it and RWBY seems to be more open-minded than last time, so they may accept you without any problems. If yours or your friend's lives are in danger, use it and explain later. I have a strange feeling about this village and Professor Lionheart isn't telling me everything and seems to dodge the question. Now go rest and enjoy a well-earned victory today Mister Arc." Ozpin put his hand on Jaune shoulder and he smiled at the gesture before leaving to rest. Ozpin walked back to his desk and looked over the notes of the village and was frowning since it seems at night, things go badly and the neighboring village complaining of noises late at night.

"Hopefully she hasn't decided to do anything with her pawns yet. This seems too strange even for her…"

 **A.N: I know it takes at least two weeks for me to get out chapter but I'm going to try a rotation schedule! Next week or two, a new story will be released and then the two weeks after I'll be back on Hearts so on and so forth, so you guys can be entertained with new stories while one is on development! And I know in canon that RWBY and JNPR don't get missions until after the dance and their investigation will be soon but this I wanted to introduce a new aspect of the story that I thought would be kind of nice to see but keep to the whole "RWBY" while using different ideas from the game.** **And do you guys would like me to add in music in a sense for certain scenes of the story to enhance what you're reading or leave it out so that it doesn't give away the whole thing? Leave a like, Review and maybe share this with your friends! Or… your dog? Eh. Have fun and have a great morning, afternoon, or night folks! Golden signing out!**

 ***Disappears in a cloud of confetti and Coca-Cola bottles. ***


	7. A Village of Secrets Pt1

_Hearts Eclipsed by Shadows_

 _Chapter 7: A Village of Secrets Pt.1_

 _[I don't own RWBY or the powers Jaune uses. They belong to their respective owners.]_

* * *

Team JNPR were packing and getting ready for their secret trip to Mistral to investigate a village that has been having mysterious disappearances. RWBY was to accompany them as backup and to strengthen the bonds between teams already have.

Jaune finished his backpack first, thanks to Yuri giving him advice since the former Harmonixer had lived in the wilds for a while and knew how to efficiently pack. Just then knock on the door draw their attention. Seeing as his team was still packing, he walked to the door and opened the door...

Ruby was there, holding his newly upgraded brass knuckles. The red reaper smiled when knight took them from her hands and inspected the new additions. There are six tubes leading from the main weapon up to the middle of Jaune's biceps. The tubes connect to six containers of dust to help using dust easier.

"Wow… You did a fantastic job Rubes." Ruby blushed slightly and turned away, but still smiled at praise.

"You're welcome Jaune! But don't forget that Weiss helped too." the red reaper skipped away as Jaune left to put his weapon away in the backpack.

"Are we ready to head back home?" Jaune said with a joking smile. He knew all of his team came from Mistral.

"I hope this village has pancakes or I'm going to be disappointed." Nora said dramatically with her head hanging low. Ren just shook his head, knowing he'll make some for her no matter what.

"Well, Ren could always make some, and I can make some extra food if needed."

"You can bake Fearless Leader?!" Nora jumped to him with stars in her eyes. Ren shook him look of sympathy.

"Y-Yeah…? My mom taught me…" Nora started to sing and was jumping around in joy.

"Okay Nora, that's enough." Ren said, placing his hand on ginger girl. She turned grey for a second and calmed down.

"Thanks, Renny." The knight let go of a breath he didn't know he had held in.

"Ok, let's do one last check if we have everything for tomorrow's mission. Dust?" Pyrrha nodded in confirmation.

"Ammunition?"

Nora smiled brightly.

"Loaded and ready Fearless Leader!"

"Food?"

Ren lifted bag with food supplies and nodded.

Jaune nodded back.

"Great. Now if you guys need me, I'll be in the gym. Kinda slacked off and need to get back in the rhythm before we go." He grabbed his workout clothes and left as his team set off to do their own things. Few moments later, Nora was in team RWBY room smiling.

"Hey, guys Jaune is working out. Wanna see if he uses his Semblance?"

* * *

Team RWBY with the addition of Nora was currently walking to the gym to spy on certain blond team leader.

"Nora, I doubt he would use it while working out. Yang just wants blackmail material on Jaune." Blake deadpanned, but Nora just waved her comment off.

"And why am I coming along?" Weiss huffed.

"Because I need someone to use another scroll." Said Yang, fixing her grip on a struggling Ruby. Weiss just rolled her eyes and continued walking, knowing that Yang would do something to force her to stay anyway...

"I don't know Yang… Should we do this? This seems wrong…" Ruby spoke with a meek tone.

"There's nothing wrong with a bit of looking Rubes." The brawler just shrugged as they reached their destination. Yang and Weiss pulled out their scrolls to record Jaune.

As they open the door, they all paused. Here, in the center of the room, shirtless Jaune was doing deadlifts.

Weiss almost instantly covered her face with her hand - though there were few spaces between her fingers.

Ruby was just staring mesmerized, her face getting progressively redder.

Blake looked unbothered - but her bow was twitching furiously.

Yang was grinning like loon, taking picture after picture, and not taking her eyes off the working out knight.

Nora had a deadpan stare due to her being exposed enough times.

"Ooh… Momma likes…" the blonde brawler was about to go inside, but the rest of her team stopped her and pulled her away.

"Yaaannggg…!" Ruby whined. "You can't just walk in there!"

"Really? Just watch me." She made to walk into training room again, but her team stopped her again. She just shrugged and allowed herself to be dragged away.

Inside, obvious to all that Jaune continued his workout, music playing from his scroll drawing noises made by five girls.

* * *

Back in their dorm, Ruby and Weiss were trying to drown the vision of Jaune shirtless

It was made harder by Yang, who was busy checking pictures she took, humming approvingly from time to time.

"Well, that was a… experience." Blake spoke with a dull tone on her bed, as the rest were trying to get relax and get rid of the blushes that adorned their faces.

"Yeah, we might not have seen his semblance in action, but we still saw something nice. Am I right guys?" Yang said with grin. Rest of her team just glared at her.

"I don't know what you were trying to do, Xiao Long." Weiss huffed. Said brawler just rolled her eyes and gave her a smile.

"If I saw correctly… You were staring just as much as I was… At least you have good taste." Weiss choked on her breath and started to sputter denials. Yang was busy laughing her ass off at heiress attempts of defending herself, and Ruby was looking at this with complicated expression, her face still red.

As Weiss was about to attack, a knock on the door stopped them and Ruby used her semblance to reach the door before anyone else. As Ruby opened the door the blonde knight was there with confusion on his face. He was still wearing his workout clothes but at least had a yellow and blue shirt on with a few sweat stains on the collar and mostly on the back. His hair stuck to his head from the sweat and his cheeks were red from the exertion.

"Have you guys seen my team? They left and the note wasn't very detailed. Nora wrote it by the way." they all shook their heads and the young hunter left to his dorm and Ruby finally cracked and blushed as she shut the door. Her older sister was having a field day with the reaper randomly blushing whenever she saw her first friend. Ruby retaliated with a pillow to her face.

"Great… Now I have that image stuck in my head…" Ruby jumped up to her bed and started working on her weapon while the heiress went to study since there's 'no excuse to stop while they go on a mission'. Blake continued to secretly read her book 'Ninja's of Love' but Yang caught a small glimpse of what's in it. Pure smut wouldn't even come close to describe what is in the book and seems to go beyond anything else, even adding in pictures occasionally. Yang herself was playing some games on her scroll to pass the time and browse the school's forums for any lessons the teachers are going to do or events happening in the school. Oobleck has a quiz in two weeks about the White Fang's origins and current impact on the different Kingdoms. The brawler then overheard the rest of Jaune's team return from their talk to the staff of Beacon and she then noticed the sun had set and the stars are out.

'Huh. I guess time slipped by me eh…' Yang yawned and stretched her arms over her head and heard a knock on the door again, the blonde bombshell got up before any of them and answered the door to see Jaune holding four trays with food on them.

"Hey. I noticed you guys didn't go to dinner, so I brought some food I went ahead and cooked up for you guys." he held them out for her to take and enjoy.

"Thanks, Jauney." Yang gave him a genuine smile and took the food as the young harmonixer shut the door behind him. The team dug into their food and had great praises for how the food was cooked. Yang had a simple pork chop with a baked potato with bacon sprinkled on it, Weiss had chicken teriyaki with rice and Blake had catfish that Yang wouldn't stop making jokes about while Ruby had freshly baked chocolate chip cookies and freshly picked strawberries that were drizzled with chocolate. As they all finished their foods, they all decided to toss away the disposable plates and go to sleep, ready for their mission tomorrow afternoon.

* * *

As JNPR was waiting for their sister team over by the bullhead docks, Jaune was humming a song that was called "Worst in Me" and was bobbing his head to the beat. Pyrrha noticed it and watched him with a smile on her face while Nora and Ren were having their usual conversation about breaking legs. Jaune never told anyone about his ability to play guitar and still keeps it a secret as his father promised to go ahead and send his custom-made guitar and a few sheets of practice music to him after his mission.

As the song Jaune was listening was over, RWBY appeared and put their luggage in a special compartment next to the door of the shuttle as they all piled on the seats as the pilot signaled the okay to fly as the pilot started the engine for the five day flight to the only city with a Bullhead port near the village, Fengtian. While the two teams were settling down and chatting animatedly, Jaune decided to play a popular game on his scroll dealing with summoning characters from other games with the same franchise name "Complete Dream". Jaune was overhearing a conversation between Ruby and Yang about something dealing with someone named Zwei and their father Taiyang and wondering if he goes on missions regularly or just stays at home and trains while they were gone. Weiss was muttering something about dust and a person named Winter and hoping to meet her soon. Blake was just reading a book while Ren and Nora was doing a thumb war due to Nora's badgering. Pyrrha was watching over the blond man's shoulder watching him play his game while downloading it for herself, impatient to play the game herself.

Four days later, Yang and Blake were playing tic tac toe to ease the boredom as Ruby watched a show about a summer camp while Ren and Nora was watching something about a nomad. Jaune was sleeping still while Pyrrha was reading a magazine with Weiss about different new types of dust out. The pilot immediately notified them that they were approaching their designated landing and to be ready to disembark. The blond hunter had woken up when the pilot started talking and grabbed his pack and handed out everyone else's.

As the group exited the bullhead, one of the villagers was helping refuel the bullhead as many were going about their business.

It was a modern variant of the villages Mistral was used to and was easily comparable to Vale's buildings. A giant skyscraper in the far back with a sign saying "World Lottery Association" with various shops all around it like a cafe and a grocery store. A few miles away features a very nice park with a large fountain and various metal benches for relaxing.

" **Well… It's been a while since I've been here. Still hasn't changed."** Yuri spoke with a bit of nostalgia in his voice.

'You've been here before? I thought you stayed in the woods mostly.' Yuri laughed a bit at the fact Jaune thought he just stayed in the woods like he lived off the land.

" **I came here after the incident at Zhaoyang village during my time. Alice was just laying on one of those benches sleeping from the long trip."** Jaune stared at the one of the benches imaging Yuri standing over Alice to make sure nothing attacks them. **"She looked so peaceful. Even after fighting a bunch of monsters."** the young hunter immediately noticed that he went to the same village they have a mission at.

'So… What happened at Zhaoyang? Are we going into something very bad or what? I rather not have my friends get killed or something.' Jaune waved the others off and told them he's going to sit on the bench while they gather supplies for going to the village.

" **Well… Just be on your guard. I won't say anything but that. You'll have to experience it you know. Just because I'm in your head doesn't mean you can cheat."** the young harmonixer just sighed and took a power nap while the ladies plus Ren went shopping.

He was suddenly woken up by Ruby, who had her hands on her hips while giving Jaune a disappointed look, Well… as best as she could which ended up cute somehow.

"Why do you sleep so much Jaune? I thought you would love to hang out with us." the young rose's voice had a bit of a sad tone, Jaune gave a smile towards the young huntress.

"How about this? I'll hang out with you for a while. I saw a bakery back there if you want to check it out." the blond hunter jerked his thumb behind while Ruby gave a squeal and hugged his arm.

"Yeah sure! I'd like to!" suddenly, she bolted off his arm with a heavy blush on her face. "But not as a date… Just as friends!" Jaune just chuckled as he started walking to the shop to get her some cookies for being a good friend and making his weapon better. Just as they leave, the rest of the group was finished with the shopping spree of supplies but then, they all noticed Jaune and Ruby was gone, and Yang started panicking until they came back with pastries with the two dorks talking about a new show coming out soon.

"Where did you two go to?" Weiss decided to interrogate the two first before the brawler can get a word out.

"Jaune found this awesome bakery and got us all some treats!" the red reaper handed out everyone's treats. Weiss got a special chocolate chip muffin with powdered sugar sprinkled on top. Blake got a surprising fish shaped donut with special tuna frosting. Yang got a head of a dragon covered in frosting that looked like fire. Both Ren and surprisingly enough Nora, both have a lotus shaped cookie in their colors.

"Wow. Thanks a lot, Jauney. We got the supplies, now let's go!" the blonde brawler raised her fist for the others to follow suit. Only a few decided to do so while Ren stayed stoic and Weiss refused to follow the others.

"Let's go guys. Onwards to the village!" Jaune led the group with the red reaper behind him as they left the town of Fengtian.

* * *

After a few miles of hiking through the forest, the two teams decided to camp out as the sun started to set. Yang and Ruby went out to grab firewood while the rest set up the tents as Jaune gets the firepit up and going.

"Wow! How do you know how to do this?" the knight broke a twig in his hands and felt it was dry and put it and a few more in the pit.

"Seven sisters and a bunch of camping trips. My family made sure that I would learn how to live in the wilds someday." Owls started making noise in the background as Jaune lit the twigs on fire with some fire dust and threw in some logs that Ruby made from chopping down trees.

"Wow. Your mom must have been a busy woman huh?" Yang wiggled her eyebrows suggestively while somehow, Ruby tossed a circular corgi pillow at the blonde's head. Weiss had a tick mark on the right side of her forehead and was contemplating whether it's a promising idea to murder her or just ignore her. Blake was clearly ignoring her by reading while the others are having conversations about families and childhood stories. Jaune looked at Yang and smiled.

"At least it's never boring at home. Either there's chaos between Violet and Azure or it's the youngest going around lighting firecrackers under your feet during your birthday. Or your twin just hanging out with you and reading a story to you."

"Sounds like you wouldn't give up anything for them huh?" the young hunter nodded with a smile.

The two blondes decided that they were hungry and made a cooking pot holder over the fire as Yang cut the vegetables as Jaune grabbed some pork out of his pack and threw it in the water Blake provided. Everyone else was sitting nearby listening to the cricket's chirp and the fire crackling.

"It feels weird… This seems more like a vacation trip than a mission huh." the harmonixer was stirring the pot as the ingredients cooked in the pot, he made sure to throw in some light spices to keep flavor.

"Yeah… This feels like one of our camping trips with my dad and Rubes. All peaceful and all that jazz." Ruby was laughing at one of Nora's stories while Ren didn't even try to correct it, letting her carry-on, entertaining everyone. Blake decided to put the book down and converse with Weiss about dust and semblances. Pyrrha just playing the same scroll game Jaune did on the bullhead, doing well for beginning a game.

"Although tomorrow morning we'll be at the village by nightfall and we'll find out what was going on." Jaune announced dinner was done started pouring the stew into various bowls to serve. Ruby being the first one up and disappearing in a flash to her tent to eat. Weiss and Blake arriving next with Weiss muttering a thank you for the food and Blake nodding her thanks and walking away with her bowl. Ren and Nora came up next and grabbed their bowls and eat in peace at their tents. Pyrrha smiling brightly and saying thanks for the meal while Yang and Jaune eating in peace over by the pot, Jaune noticing dark grey clouds overhead, signaling rain to come.

"Hopefully it doesn't rain on the way to the village. That'll suck for sure." Yang spoke a bit weary while the other blond nodded but knew that they had prepared for rain, Pyrrha checked the weather app on her scroll in Fengtian.

"Be the way… What are your sister's names anyways?" Yang questioned the harmonixer while he just chuckled.

"Well there's Violet the eldest at twenty-six years old and a veteran huntress from Haven… Azure and Lapis are the first twins aged twenty-four, but Azure was first by two minutes and holds that over her twin's head. Olive is twenty-two and has started being an independent huntress in Atlas. Then you have me and Joan, she's going to Haven for her first year. Then you have the second youngest, Rouge is about thirteen or fourteen and she's just adorable. Just don't look at her puppy eyes, they're evil. Then the youngest, Blanc. She's just barely ten but she has a weird energy to her. She is comatose one second then she's just like Nora the next second." the brawler just laughed at the descriptions and smiled.

"Sounds like a lively family. My dad's name is Taiyang Xiao Long, he teaches at Signal which is our like… beginning hunter school at Patch. He's nice and relaxing but sometimes he is worried about us going to Beacon. Then there's Uncle Qrow and he used to teach at Signal but stopped and does missions for Headmaster Ozpin. You already know about Rubes so that's really it." Jaune had a small frown at his face about not mentioning her mother but he had a feeling she didn't want to talk about her yet, so he shrugged it off and cleaned dishes for everyone. After dishes were done, everyone went to their tents, Jaune and Ruby were at the top on separate sides with everyone going down by their team initials and fell asleep for the journey to the mysterious village.

* * *

Jaune was in the lead with the map while the others were doing a supply check as Ruby skipped up to talk to him about various things of his life.

"Well… My sisters kept braiding my hair but I'm more of a warrior's wolf tail kind of guy." Ruby just chuckled and gave him an incredulous look.

"That's just a ponytail Jaune…" Jaune shot her a betrayed look.

"I think it would look good on me don't you think?" the blond hunter smiled but the reaper just shook her head no, causing Jaune's head to slump downwards.

"Thanks Crater-Face…" the harmonixer gave Ruby a gentle shove away and gave him a mock glare and pout.

The others noticed the two goofing off and laughing and smiled at them, except Weiss who had a small glare pointed at the two leaders.

"They should be more professional than that…" Yang just shook her head and patted the Ice Queen's shoulder.

"All were doing is traveling. They have plenty of time to play around Weiss-Cream." Weiss had an urge to strangle Yang but gave her a very cold glare. The rest laughed at Weiss freezing the blonde brawler's head solid with her rapier as Yang was punching her way out.

As night set onto the group, they saw the metal reinforced wooden gate with about twenty-foot-tall walls all around the village. At the gate, two torches were lit so sentries can see if anyone was at the gate or if Grimm were attacking. As the group approached the gate, Jaune gave it a few loud knocks to alert the village that people were outside.

"Hellooo! Anyone home?!" Ruby called out beyond the gate.

After a while, no one answer so Yang decided to kick the gate a bit to alert anyone there.

"C'mon! Anyone home!?" the heiress decided to stop and Jaune told everyone to get ready to camp outside for the night until two small kids ran up to the gate and alerted them.

"Sorry about that! Took us a while to get over here!" a kid dress in yellow yelled out to them.

"Yeah really sorry!" a kid dressed in red spoke out too. The others looked around and Jaune walked up.

"Can you guys open the gate by chance? We kind of traveled here a while and would like a place to rest." the two kids ran off and got the gate open by one of the guards.

As the gate opens, the kids ran out and greeted them. They were weirdly enough staring at the girls for some reason, making most of them nervous except Yang, who winked at them.

"Wow! So many girls!" the one in yellow exclaimed. The red one looked… hungry…

"Nana will be pleased! You can stay at the manor! It's at the end of the square on the left!" the two left, leaving most of them nervous but they still walked into the village with the gate closing behind them.

" **Be on guard Jaune… I remember those two brats. Stay close to the girls and don't let them leave your sight."** Yuri had a strange… warning tone to his voice. The girls got in front of him as he had his mental conversation with Yuri.

'What's going to happen Yuri?'

" **Nothing good…"**

* * *

 **A.N: Sorry for the loooooong wait for this chapter. I had to rewrite it a few times and felt a few sections sucked… So, to repeat. Sorry. But I'll keep writing this as much as I can, and I want to thank over 100 people for following this story! I'm happy people love reading this, so I want to thank you guys. You guys are awesome! Now the group are in Zhaoyang and Yuri had delivered a grim message to Jaune and he must keep the group safe in this village of illusions. See you guys in the next chapter! *disappears in golden confetti***


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